Heavy
by mintos013
Summary: AU: Scarlet's got a sinister plan to get back the old life. Warning for violence, language, character death. Turks centric.
1. Cloud Carrier

**Disclaimer: **I do not own the Final Fantasy VII Compilation

**Heavy**

* * *

**Part 1: Cloud Carrier**

"They're dead," Rude said simply, surveying the bridge's remains with Reno at his side. "We should rejoin the others."

The sky overhead began to swirl with darkness. The atmosphere chilled and came alive with flashes of lightning. Reno and Rude both twisted around to face the direction that Cloud had raced not ten minutes ago. Small rocks and pieces of rubble skittered across the ground, sucked towards the center of Midgar, towards their old headquarters.

"What the hell you figure that's about?" Reno squinted to see what was going on so far away.

"Cloud must have failed to stop Kadaj," Rude answered, alarm affecting his usual stoic voice. His shades were tugged forward and he knocked them back up the bridge of his nose with two fingers. He put a hand on Reno's arm just as the wind began picking up hard enough to buffet their black uniforms. Reno's red hair whipped crazily about.

"It's time to find shelter!" Rude yelled over the blasts of air that were getting stronger and stronger.

Reno, never one to do things the easy way, was perfectly still. The eerie sounds of a building collapsing in the distance reached his sharp ears. His eyebrows lifted, his eyes widened, and Reno snapped into a breakneck run towards Midgar's center without another word.

Rude recovered from a brief episode of shock and chased after his partner, which wasn't that hard considering the wind was on his side, pummeling him forward after the redheaded maniac.

It was getting too dark and chaotic to see. Tendrils of black were spinning from the sky. Midgar was visible only in the unnatural storm's flashes of lightning. The clouds above circled the dead city and formed a terrifying, nightmarish vortex, and Reno was running right for it.

Rude could scarcely breathe. His skin was numbed by the fierce winds. His legs were on autopilot.

"_Stick together—Always!"_ Tseng had drilled into their minds long ago. Rude found himself racing to follow that order. Reno had always been hard to keep up with. He kept losing sight of him every time Reno went flying around a building's corner or made an inhuman scramble up its side.

Shin-Ra HQ loomed ahead. Rude flung himself over a towering scrap heap, expecting to catch a glimpse of Reno's red hair, but saw nothing remotely alive still in the vicinity. He cursed and ran straight for their old headquarters. It seemed to be where the action was. Even from such a distance, Rude could hear the echo of swords. Where else could Reno be heading?

After several panicked minutes of running, he found his partner. Reno was standing at the base of the Shin-Ra building, his head thrown back. Rude came to a halt behind him and leaned on his knees, struggling to catch his breath. When he'd regained enough of his composure, Rude straightened up and approached his partner. Reno's green eyes were fixed on the sky above. Those eyes were wide. They were… frightened? Rude looked up and saw something he'd never forget.

Cloud Strife and a man that looked too similar to Sephiroth were fighting in the sky, floating up there like two battling angels amongst a ring of swords. Cloud was glowing in ethereal light as he attacked Sephiroth over and over, using all of the swords that surrounded them. The Turks watched in awe as Sephiroth at last dissolved into a gust of black feathers, leaving nothing but Kadaj's small body behind. It fell from their sight, landing somewhere on top of the building where Cloud had dropped as well.

"I'm going up," Reno said simply. "You coming with me?"

Rude straightened his tie and gave his partner an insulted look.

* * *

They ran through the rain together, practically scaling the building. A familiar sound shot through the air.

Glass from blown out windows crunched beneath Rude's shoes as he ran. "Was that—?"

"—A gun!" Reno's eyes were vicious as he charged ahead, propelling up poles and edges and ruined sheets of metal and anything else that presented a foothold until at last he reached the place where Cloud was.

Rude followed, cringing at the blast of heat and magic that met him upon what counted as the rooftop. He saw Reno stumble back. He witnessed Yazoo and Loz disintegrate in a maelstrom of power. Cloud's body was flung away and rolled to a dead stop. Flames of all colors covered the blond's body, and Rude watched his partner rush, kneel by Cloud, and attempt to beat the flames away with his hands.

Rude walked up to the pair. The steady rain was soaking him. At his feet lay an injured man. Flameless now, smoke drifted from the body and he heard Reno sigh in relief.

"Is he dead?"

Reno's shoulders heaved as he caught his breath. "Nah, just blown to hell. Do we have any Materia for this?"

"Nope."

"Guess that means we'll have to go find someone who does, then," Reno said, standing up. Rude watched, but kept his surprise to himself, as the redhead hefted Cloud onto his back.

Reno smirked at his partner's expression. It didn't matter that it was blank; Reno always knew what his partner was thinking. "Now's the fun part. Let's get him down from here," Reno said.

"All right," Rude agreed, "but I'm not carryin' him."

They began walking, looking for a path down that didn't involve falling to their deaths.

Reno laughed. "I know, right? It feels like just yesterday I was giving this guy a piggyback ride. Maybe someday he'll learn to walk these things off on his own, huh?"

* * *

"You're still pretty heavy," Reno muttered, shifting the body he carried on his back. Arms were slung over his shoulders. Blond hair, stained with blood, tickled the back of his neck. He gripped Cloud by the thighs to keep the younger man's body from slipping off his back and hitting the debris covered streets of Midgar's ruins.

A few steps ahead, Rude grunted. "You say something?"

Reno's pale green eyes flicked up from watching his own feet shuffle along the ground. There was a wild glint in his irises. His disheveled uniform was covered in dust and ash; leftovers from the fine piece of Shin-Ra technology they'd hurled at Yazoo and Loz. Not that the subsequent explosion had really done much good.

Reno stumbled under the weight he carried, barely catching himself from toppling over or dropping Cloud. He quickly readjusted, grimacing. Cloud's blood had soaked through the back of Reno's jacket.

_What a mess you are,_ the redhead thought. The sun had raised enough to finally take some of the chill out of the air, at least.

"You got him?" Rude didn't stop or look back. He slowed his pace by a fraction.

"Yeah," his partner's voice cracked. The heavy footsteps followed from behind Rude once more. "I've got him."

A shadow soon washed over the two Turks, and with it came the loud noise of the airship's engines. Dirt was sent violently into the air and Rude held up his arms to shield his face. Reno just closed his eyes, held onto the body slumped against his back, and waited.

"Cloud!" Tifa cried, leaping from the airship's rope ladder before the ship had a chance to properly land. She ran towards the Turks. "Cloud! Cloud, we couldn't find you in the darkness!"

She came to a halt as Reno collapsed to his knees, leaning forward to keep Cloud from rolling off his back and hitting the ground.

Startled, Rude crouched by his partner. "You all right?"

Reno assured him with a nod. He was out of breath from carrying a heavy guy like Cloud for so long. His bones felt like weights.

"Cloud!" Tifa rushed around the two Turks to grip Cloud and ease her injured friend from Reno's back to the ground. There she began to fuss over him, checking his pulse and finding his wounds. They were grisly discoveries to make.

Rude watched her through the dark tint of his shades. He could tell she cared deeply for Cloud. The panic was evident in her every movement, yet she didn't dissolve into a mess of tears. Instead she kept it together. She was a good woman for a crisis. He'd always admired that about her, along with her superb fighting skills… her long legs.

A sweep of darkness and crimson, and Vincent was there by her side. "Is he safe to move?"

"Leaving him out here isn't gonna do him any good," Reno said, pushing Rude gently away when his partner tried to help him stand. On his feet once more, the Turk absently dusted himself off and gestured towards the airship. "Don't you guys have something on there that can help?"

"He's alive, but barely," Tifa answered Vincent. She swallowed, worried. Her hand ran through matted blond hair, brushing it away from Cloud's burned face. His whole body seemed damp with blood. He'd been stabbed in the shoulder, and shot, and faced the heat of a hot blast—and those were just the obvious wounds that she could determine.

"We're lucky we found him. I just… hope we're in time," she breathed.

Nodding, Vincent moved, and in a blur of red shadows, both Cloud and he were gone. It was so fast, but Reno caught the flash of them. He twisted and watched the dark trail of unfathomable power dart up the side of the airship and out of sight. It was like watching a ghost made of blood.

"That guy..." Rude muttered.

"...gives me the creeps," Reno added.

Tifa dusted her hands. She couldn't think about the blood that now stained them, or how badly damaged Cloud was. Her brown eyes looked to the Turks.

"Thank you," she told them, and they turned to face her. "We searched all night for him, but we just couldn't—it was so dark. I thought we'd never—and then Cid saw you guys carrying him. I was so relieved! Thank you for bringing him back to us. Are you… Are you all right?"

Her eyes took in the blood on Reno. The dark material of his jacket couldn't hide how much there was. His shirt, of course un-tucked, was red at the fringes.

"Don't worry." Reno gave her a wild smile. "Most of it's not even mine."

Tifa repressed a shudder. "You both look exhausted. Come with us. Let us give you a ride to wherever you need to go. It's the least I can offer."

"It's, uh, it was no, well…" Rude tried, fiddling with his collar to avoid looking at her face.

Reno grinned. "What he means to say is he thinks you're—"

"Thanks for the offer," Rude said. "We'll definitely take it. We need to get back to the city, to Edge. That's likely where the President and the rest of our associates are."

Pleased, Tifa nodded. "Just follow me," she said, and quickly led them towards the long, heavy rope ladder that hung lazily next to the airship. She moved swiftly up the ladder's ropey rungs and the Turks hurried after her.

"Admiring the view?" An amused voice asked from below.

Halfway up the ladder, Rude spared his partner a murderous frown, which Reno's upturned face deflected with a smirk and bright green eyes.

* * *

The airship was in the skies again. Cloud was somewhere being properly bandaged up and healed with Materia. Reno was standing at the rails, outside and out of the way of Cloud's friends. Truth be told the airship was so huge he didn't have to go outside to be out of their way, he just felt too restless to stay indoors.

"He'll be fine," Rude offered, hanging back to lean against one of the ship's walls. "He's strong. He's got Jenova cells in him, and I heard the Wutai girl say something about his Geostigma infestation being gone. That's something, right?"

"Yeah…" Reno watched the ground pass by below. Soon they'd be passing over Sector 3. "Maybe the boss'll be so lucky. I'm sure Tseng and Elena have him somewhere safe. As soon as this thing lands we'll go find them."

Abruptly, the airship began a hard turn. It was so severe that Reno had to hold onto the top railing and plant his feet to keep himself from falling down. Behind him, he could hear Rude cursing and slip-sliding along the wall. Moments later the ship steadied, heading back the way it had just come. Reno detached himself from the railings and turned to see a highly disgruntled Rude already striding towards him.

"Well, guess they forgot something!" Reno said lightly. "Looks like we're not going to Edge just yet."

"Maybe we should go inside in case they do that again. You could have fallen off," Rude grumbled, straightening his suit and joining Reno at the rails in case it did happen again. He peered over the edge of the railings. Sector 4 was a long way down.

Reno scoffed. "Oh? You were the one practically dancing to stay on your feet a sec ago. Did you think I missed that?" He laughed. "Can't wait to tell Elena about it."

"Maybe we should go inside before I throw you off."

* * *

He hadn't meant to fall asleep. When he awoke, he was in an unfamiliar room and Rude was sitting in a chair by the bed Reno rested on.

"Everyone's off the ship but us," Rude informed him.

Reno sat up, holding his head. His brain felt stuffy and his eyes had all that icky sleep junk caking them. He pried it away with his fingers as his brain tried to process what was going on.

"We're on a ship?"

"There's a huge crowd of people outside. Most of them are in the church. That's where Cloud said we should go." Rude checked his watch. "That was about an hour ago."

"Cloud?"

Rude nodded, taking off his shades and wiping a smudge off of them with a cloth from his pocket. His brown eyes, deep and calculating, locked with Reno's pale green ones in a hard, serious gaze. "Are you sure you're feeling all right?"

Shaking his head, Reno's brain caught up, and he remembered finding Cloud and hauling the dying man in a beeline away from Midgar's Shin-Ra headquarters—until the airship found them.

"I'm fine. I don't remember falling asleep. I guess I'm just disoriented. I don't remember being in this room…" Reno said, glancing around it.

Skeptical eyes disappeared behind shades again. "Anyway," Rude continued, "while you were asleep Cloud woke up. He said he dreamed about that Ancient girl telling him to go to Sector 5, so here we are."

"So Cloud's all right now?"

Rude shook his head. "His chest had a grievous wound that even their Materia was unable to heal. They took him into the church. I watched them from the railings. As far as I know, they're probably still inside it."

Reno slid his legs off of the bed and stood up, careful not to hit his head on the low ceiling. The room was cramped, full of the bed and the chair and nothing else. "Well, let's go investigate what has all of these people you talked about gathered around here."

"Are you sure you're up to it?"

"Sure I'm sure. Besides, if that dead Ancient told him to come here, he'll probably be okay. Tseng still thinks she's the one who saved the Planet during Meteorfall," Reno said.

Rude followed his partner from the room and down a long airship corridor. The dark gray wall panels and soft blue lights that ran across the ground reminded him of the tunnels beneath Junon. Often they encountered thick doors that would split and slide into the walls upon their approach. The vessel was high tech, but Rude was sure it wasn't Shin-Ra's. He wondered how Cid had come across it.

"Do you know where you're going?" Rude asked, following Reno through another set of retracting cargo doors and up a metal staircase.

"Nah, but I figured you'd tell me if I was going the wrong way." Reno led them into yet another of the gray paneled corridors.

Rude made an amused noise. "Then be sure to take a left up ahead."

Several minutes later the two Turks emerged into familiar territory.

"Finally!" Reno said. "Now we can go find them."

Rude picked up his pace to keep up with Reno's quickened one. "What about the President? Didn't you say that as soon as the ship lands we should go find him and the others?"

Reno found a ladder that led up towards an exit catwalk and began climbing, Rude at his heels. "He'd probably want to know what's going on here, too. He's got Tseng and Elena with him. Look, we'll go check it out and then head for Edge, okay?"

Rude grunted his compliance.

* * *

The large church was a monument of stone columns, broken wood, and stained glass windows. Much of the roof was missing along with sections of the walls. Several of the glass panes had long been shattered. Still, the church ruins were a beautiful rarity in Midgar. Even in a state of decay, it was a bright place amongst all the ugliness.

"Hey, I remember this place," Reno said as he stepped off the last rope rung and joined Rude on solid ground. His green eyes scanned the grounds and found them teeming with people. Everyone was excited and wore big smiles. Children were everywhere, both playing and wrapped up in the arms of happy adults.

"It's like they're having a party or something," Reno observed.

"Look, there are more people coming." Rude directed his partner's attention towards what had once been the Sector 4 Slums. The road leading from there was packed with people, as were the other roads feeding towards the dilapidated church. As more people arrived, the crowd further swelled and grew louder.

"If we want to get inside we better hurry," Reno said. "There's more coming from Sector 6. What are people even doing in there, yo?"

"Taking their chances like everyone else. Tseng said Reeve was adamant about finding a way to pull people completely out of Midgar, that it just isn't responsible to allow them to live in these ruins," Rude explained, scanning the crowd for any familiar visages.

He'd caught a glimpse earlier, when they'd first exited the ship, but now he didn't see the woman. It probably wasn't her anyway, but he'd sworn… There just weren't many people running around with green hair.

"It's gotta be pretty dangerous living here. I wouldn't want to be here all night," Reno admitted. He squinted, trying to get a better look at a green-haired woman standing close to the church, but she slinked into the boisterous crowd and Reno lost track of her.

"You see something?" Rude asked.

Reno hesitated. "Nah. Maybe. We'll worry about it later. This place is getting packed, but it could be worse. At least it's not a riotous mob we're dealing with here," he laughed. This felt more like the Golden Saucer's type of crowd.

"I don't care if everyone seems to be in a good mood," Rude said. "I hate crowds. Especially excited ones."

"Yeah, tell me about it," Reno conceded as he started walking towards the Sector 5 Church. His electromagnetic rod slipped from his sleeve and was held tightly in his left hand. He flipped the tiny switch that made it expand and with his thumb set its shock level to what he affectionately thought of as _bite._ The EMR was always kept compact and up his sleeve in case he needed it. Around his forearm and hidden beneath his clothing was a small holster that held it out of sight when it wasn't needed. In addition, the EMR had a strong wristlet that served to keep the weapon from slipping away during a fight.

"You kill someone with that and we'll never get through the door," Rude said.

"Relax, partner. It's just for encouragement, you know, in case the cattle doesn't want to move when politely asked."

Rude nodded and followed as Reno headed for the church with his EMR pointed down and at his side. No one seemed to notice it. No one even seemed to notice how bloody the two Turks were, especially the redheaded one. Not that Rude was going to complain as he wove with Reno through the thick throng of people. Only once did his ears catch a snatch of a whisper.

_Looks like Shin-Ra's here to take it away—just like they take everything away,_ the whisper hissed, but it was just an old woman, so Rude paid her no mind.

* * *

Cloud watched the Geostigma vanish from Denzel's forehead. It had taken them over an hour to get inside the church, but the water was there, just like Aerith had promised in his dream. He watched other people wade into the holy water and come back out healed. Others he'd overheard talking about how their infestation had been cured by a healing rain like the one that had healed his own during the battle against Kadaj.

"Hey!" he heard a voice call. It was definitely Reno. Cloud turned, along with the others, to see the Turk stomping after Rude. The EMR was raised, and a few people around the redhead were cursing as they hurried out of his way, rubbing their arms or shoulders.

"I said don't step on the flowers!"

Rude paused and waited for his exasperated partner to catch up. There were so many people gathered around that it was easy to lose track of each other. Reno strode up to him.

"Why not?" Rude asked, figuring that over half the batch was ruined regardless. The flowers that weren't already trampled underfoot were floating dead in the water.

"I dunno," Reno admitted. "It just seems like bad luck," he said with a shrug. He laid his electromagnetic rod lazily across one of his shoulders. "They belonged to her."

Rude scoffed. "You're too superstitious." He looked around. Most of the crowd stood on the edge of a large span of water that had collected inside the church. It had to be pretty deep. Cloud was in it up to his waist. Kids were splashing around, but people were quieter inside than they had been outside the church. Of course, a great majority of them were staring at the Turks and listening.

"Am not," Reno insisted, but let it go as Cloud's friends—Tifa, Vincent, Cid, Yuffie, Barret, Nanaki, Cait Sith, some children, and a dripping Cloud himself, approached.

"You're awake!" Tifa gave them both a big brown-eyed smile. "I was a little worried about you, Reno. You passed out."

"Yeah, you're lucky Glasses caught you," Yuffie snickered.

He felt his face flush, but Reno recovered quickly and shrugged off her concern with a smirk. "Don't worry about me. It's just been a long week, you know? We figured we'd come check this place out. Why are all these people here?"

"Aerith told them to come," Tifa said.

"The Ancient?" Reno's gaze flicked to Cloud, and back to Tifa. The Turk noted in that instant that Cloud seemed totally okay. There wasn't even a stagger in his step. He even looked a _little_ less gloomy.

"They've come to heal," Vincent answered the Turk. "This water is blessed. Its curative powers are capable of removing Geostigma's curse."

"And there's more to it than that!" Yuffie bounced on her heels. "This stuff is great! It even healed Cloud where a laser or something had got him good. Right, Cloud?"

"It sure did," the blond agreed with her, but his dark blue mako eyes were on the Turks. He seemed to be thinking some pretty deep thoughts, and it made Reno a little nervous to have that much brain power directed so obviously his way.

"Really? Maybe we should take some of it to the President," Reno said, eyeing the water instead of returning that calculating gaze.

Without a word, Rude moved into action. He produced a metal flask from an inner suit pocket and unscrewed the lid, empting the contents (much to Reno's suppressed dismay). Then the Turk went to collect.

"So how does this miracle water work?" Reno asked. "Do you have to be dunked in it or drink or what?"

"It seems like any kind of direct contact with it on the wound or infestation site is enough to do the trick," Tifa answered as Rude returned as quickly as he'd left.

The Turk held his flask up for his partner to see and then put it away; hiding it again in his zipped up jacket.

"Maybe this'll prove useful," Rude said. "Let's go."

Reno nodded, and the two began walking away from Cloud and his friends.

"Wait!" Tifa called. "Where are you two going?"

The Turks paused and looked back at her.

"To Edge, to find the President, of course," Reno answered. He rolled his shoulders. His jacket and the shirt beneath it felt so stiff from all the dried blood and dirt encrusting them. It was gross, but he wasn't going to stroll around shirtless.

Her smile returned. Her hands went to her hips. "I thought we had an agreement? You brought us Cloud, so we'll bring you to Rufus. Wasn't that what we agreed?"

"Thanks for the offer, but we're kind of in a hurry," Reno told her.

"Then let's hurry up and go!" Yuffie darted a little towards the exit and turned back to face her friends. "This water is amazing, but we can't just hang around here forever."

"Girl's right. There's a lot of cleaning up to do in Edge." Barrett took Marlene's hand. "We might as well all get goin'."

"A lot of people will be coming through here for a while. Someone should let Reeve know. I'm sure he can set up some kind of protection for them," Cloud added. "There are a lot of monsters still lurking about Midgar and the Wastelands."

Tifa smiled at the Turks. "You guys might as well come with us," she tempted. "It beats walking."

"I'm sure our old pals there aren't the only ones who could use a ride," Cid said, glancing around the church. "Let's see if any of these youngin's and people want to go on now, too. _The Shera_ can handle a bunch of us, no worries."

Despite what Reno had promised his partner, the Turks found themselves climbing back onto the airship with everyone else. He didn't miss the look Rude shot him as the ship lifted back into the air.

"Okay, we'll go find the others next time it lands," Reno muttered.


	2. Heidegger's Car

**Disclaimer: **I do not own the Final Fantasy VII Compilation

**Heavy**

* * *

**Part 2: Heidegger's Car**

The doors slid together behind Cloud as he stepped outside _The Shera_. The sloping edges of the airship's contours did not provide many flat places for people to safely stand outside, so there were only a few such outside observation decks. The wind was strong, but buffeted by parts of the ship that stuck out further than the railed deck. Far above him the airship's mechanisms spun to keep the vessel aloft. Far below him lay Midgar. Ahead, Cloud saw the Turks he was looking for.

Tifa had of course filled Cloud in on how the Turks assisted him. It didn't surprise Cloud. It wasn't the first time they'd dragged his unconscious body somewhere safe. However, their unknown motives for doing so, their true motives, continued to bother him. Perhaps Rufus had ordered them to keep him alive. Perhaps the man still believed he could talk Cloud into being hired muscle.

_Guarding the interests of Rufus Shin-Ra is probably the last job I'd ever take_, Cloud thought as he made his way towards the Turks. If they'd noticed him in their peripheral vision, they weren't letting on.

"Tifa said I'd find you out here," Cloud told them, announcing his presence. He kept a small distance from them and took in the view that was spread out beyond The Shera's protective railings. The sun was high and the sky was clear.

"Yo, Cloud. What can we do for you?" Reno sat with his legs dangling off the edge of the airship. His arms were wrapped lazily around the bottom rung of the ship's railings. Rude stood close beside him, hands lightly gripping the top rail.

Cloud was a little surprised to find Barret with the Turks as well. He hadn't been able to see the giant man until he'd gotten closer because of the way the ship's walls were angled. The former leader of AVALANCHE sat on the ground on the other side of Reno, his broad shoulders leaned against the railings and both legs stretched out across the walkway. A big grin was plastered on his face. Of the three, Barret was the only one facing Cloud.

"Hey, Spikey!" the man greeted, and Cloud nodded at him. "Reno here was just telling me about some rich oil fields Shin-Ra owns in the North that they might just be willing to share."

"There's oil in Wutai, too," the redhead said, "but good luck getting the natives to let you drill there. They were always under the impression that it belonged to them and not the people who did all the work and found it."

"Well, it is their land." Cloud pointed out.

"Details, yo," Reno replied.

"Don't forget the southern fields," Rude added.

"Oh yeah! Totally forgot those…" Reno shrugged. "Anyway, if the WRO is interested in them, just let us know, and we'll let the President know. I'm sure some kind of arrangement could be made."

Something about the conversation made Cloud's hackles rise. Two years and already Shin-Ra was working to spread its vines and start controlling everything again. He couldn't help but wonder how powerful Shin-Ra currently was. Not knowing for sure made him paranoid.

"I just wanted you to know that I'm not helping you rebuild Shin-Ra," Cloud said, and he did not miss how Reno stiffened, "but that I do owe you one."

His bluntness was enough to stall a response from Reno, so Rude said: "If anything, it's Shin-Ra that owes you."

"That's right," Reno agreed quietly. Both of the Turk's backs were still to Cloud, so he couldn't see the disappointment in Reno's eyes.

Sensing the unease that was settling over his two new best leads on alternative fuel, Barret changed the subject. "Say, any of you notice that hottie that kept comin' back for the water? She probably made off with five big jugs of the stuff. She only quit 'cause people started asking her what the hell she was doing taking so much. I didn't see the big deal. I mean, doesn't look to me like the stuff was about to run dry."

Interested, both Turks looked to Barret, and Reno asked, "What did she look like?"

"See that's what made me notice her," Barret said. "She had crazy colored hair and big blue eyes."

"I thought you might say as much. It could be Paige, Scarlet's personal assistant," Rude said, looking down at Reno as he spoke. "The resemblance was uncanny, though I only got a glimpse. It's hard to miss a woman with green hair."

Barret nodded. "Yep, that was her. She had green hair. I wonder how she made off with those heavy containers? She must have had help."

"I saw her, too," Reno said, frowning. "If it was Paige, then I guess Scarlet could still be alive. Figures she might still be around." He exchanged a look with his partner. "Paige was totally dedicated to the Ice Queen. Damn, who knows what resources Scarlet had squirreled away before Meteorfall, And if she's alive, Heidegger might be, too. Do you really think it's possible?"

"Scarlet and Heidegger? Alive?" Barret spat with disgust. He regarded his gun-arm with no small amount of bitterness. "Shit."

"How could they have survived?" Cloud asked. "They were blown up by their own machine."

Cloud didn't remember a green-haired enemy named Paige, but figured the Turks knew more about Shin-Ra personnel than he did.

"Well, it isn't known for certain if they're dead or not, but if they aren't, they've been way under the radar," Reno said. "None of our contacts have mentioned them. But to tell you the truth… other than the President's father, there's no telling _who's_ dead for sure."

"Damn Shin-Ra are like cockroaches," Barret muttered. "That'd be just our luck if more of 'em survived Meteorfall. No offense, you two."

Reno shrugged.

"There was no real love between the Turks and the majority of Shin-Ra's executives," Rude told them.

"Yeah, most of them wanted us dead." Reno smirked. "Lucky for us the President stepped in."

"You mean Rufus?" Cloud asked. When both of the Turks nodded, the ex-mercenary quietly scoffed and said, "Funny... I didn't think Rufus cared about anyone."

Reno twisted, looking over his shoulder so that he could see Cloud. "What did you say?"

Cloud was unsure of what to say, but he was sure of the heat in those sharp green eyes. He was sure of the way those pale fingers gripped the railing, and the deep scowl that was settling over the Turk's face.

_Well here's a nerve that's easy to cross,_ Cloud thought to himself. He realized that if he wanted, he could probably goad Reno into a fight with his next words. A fight with one Turk would of course involve the other one, but then again, Cloud wasn't interested in picking a fight with them. He was thinking of a way to respond without further insulting the Turk's leader when Rude intervened...

...by lightly smacking the back of his partner's red head.

Reno turned his glare on the other Turk. "Rude! What was that for!?"

"Chill, _**yo**_," Rude advised.

Shocked by the "yo" more then the fact that Rude wasn't taking his side, Reno settled back down to stare incredulously at the ruins far below.

Rude looked at Cloud with a mildly apologetic expression. It was hard to tell with the shades.

"So... Rufus kept the other execs from getting you guys fired?" Cloud asked.

Rude glanced down at Reno, but it was obvious the redhead wasn't going to respond. Uncomfortably, Rude replied,"Fired is one way to think of it."

"What do you mean?" Cloud pressed.

Again Rude couldn't help but look to Reno, fully expecting his partner to fill in the rest. It didn't happen, so Rude repressed a sigh of resignation and returned his attention to the ex-mercenary. "There was a time when the former president was close to signing off on the immediate execution of the Turks."

"Whoa now! Now I'm really curious. What'd ya'll do? I thought you all was his favorite pet assassins or somethin'!" Barret scratched his chin as he watched the two Turks for an answer.

"It's complicated," Rude explained, glancing again down at Reno. Reno remained quiet, arms still hooked over the railings, so Rude reluctantly added, "Suffice it to say that we'd suffered heavy losses. Besides Reno and I, Tseng was the only Turk left alive."

"And?" Cloud asked.

"And in Scarlet's eyes, it was the perfect opportunity to be rid of us," Rude answered. From the tilt of his chin, Cloud could tell the Turk was looking at Reno yet again. There was a pause, and Rude added, "She was paranoid. She had the former president convinced that he couldn't trust us either, but then—"

"The President walked in and talked his old man out of it," Reno interrupted, finishing the tale. Cloud and Barret would have sworn they caught Rude looking relieved, but it was hard to tell.

After a moment of thinking about what he'd just heard, Cloud said, "I guess that explains it then."

"What?" the Turks asked.

"Why you're all so loyal to him."

Reno laughed bitterly and slumped further against the railings. _This guy, he'll never understand._ "The pay's not too bad, either. Meteorfall or not, Rufus Shin-Ra is R-I-C-H, you know?"

"I suppose money is always a safe bet to lure employees back, even after something like Meteorfall," Cloud mused.

"Apocalypse smocalypse," Reno said, now with an earnest grin. "It's our job to follow orders. We're Turks—"

"—until the end," Rude said.

"If that was Scarlet's assistant like ya'll seem to think," Barret said, his brown eyes still on the Turks, "what do you think she wants with all that water she made off with?"

"Maybe she suffered from Geostigma as well," Cloud figured.

"I guess we'll have to find out," Reno said, looking up at his partner. "Maybe she wants to sell it, or, I dunno. With Scarlet it was always about weapons. She was a genius when it came to creating stuff. If she is alive, whatever resources or plans she might've took from headquarters are property of the Company and should be reclaimed."

Rude gave a clipped nod. "Does it take priority over rejoining the others first?"

Reno thought about it, and shook his head. "Nah. If I could get someone on the PHS it'd be different, but there's not enough signal I guess. I get nothin' but static."

"If you do find something out…" Cloud paused, considering his next words and if he should say them. He looked at the Turks, at their battered uniforms, and the blood stains Reno wore like a cape. "If it turns out that Scarlet or anyone who could be a threat is still out there, will you let one of us know?"

Reno looked over his shoulder again, but this time with a tailor-made smirk. There was a mischievous glint in those green eyes. "Suuuure, Cloud. You don't mind doing likewise, do you?"

"It's a deal," Cloud confirmed. He turned to go back inside, but hesitated, looking over his shoulder at the Turks and Barret.

"Thanks," Cloud said, and they all knew he wasn't talking about their cooperation concerning the potential threat of former Shin-Ra executives.

"Hey, no problem," Reno laughed. "Dragging bodies around is in our job description. Glad you survived, yo. I would've been pissed if you'd died after all that work carryin' you around. You're pretty heavy."

Cloud's laugh was brief and quiet. As he left, he heard Barret launch right back into an excited conversation about the possibilities of alternative fuels.

* * *

Later, the Turks relocated to a sort of little living area the airship had tucked away in its center. If anyone could find a room with a couch in it to crash on, Rude figured, it was Reno. It was like a sixth sense or something. Forget that the couch was stiff as a board. It was a couch.

Reno slouched on one end of the lengthy couch and Rude relaxed on the other, leaving a good space between them for when his redheaded partner inevitably claimed more of the cushioned squares for a curled up nap. Even though Reno had dead slept for a few hours earlier, he was obviously still worn for wear. Rude knew it. He was ready to crash into oblivion himself.

The room was softly lit by the same blue lights that ran across the floors in the ship's corridors, and aside from the couch, contained a couple of large, stiff chairs and a metal coffee table. Some blank monitor screens hung on the walls, Rude noted. He also noted that one corner of the room seemed darker than the rest, but didn't bother to point it out to his partner. If the old vampire wanted to lurk there and spy on them, let him lurk, so long as he didn't pose a threat Rude didn't care. He wasn't too surprised that they were being monitored.

It wasn't long until someone else found them. The ship was full of strangers from the church now, but the person who entered the room looked familiar. It was a boy.

"Hi, my name's Denzel. Here, Tifa thought you might be thirsty." Denzel sat in a chair near the Turks and passed them a couple of canned drinks. "They might be a little hot. They got left out in the sun, Cid said, but he also said they should be safe to drink."

"It's okay. Thanks, kid," Reno said. He cracked the lid's tab and took a swig of the drink, nearly choking on the sweetness of it. It was some kind of flavored soda, and it definitely could have benefited from refrigeration, but it was better than nothing.

Rude accepted his can as well, but didn't open it.

"You're welcome," Denzel replied, sipping his own soda.

"So, I hear you live with Cloud and Tifa." Reno leaned back in his seat, relaxing while there was time to relax. Tried as he might, he hadn't been able to reach Tseng or anybody. No one was answering. He tried not to let that worry him too much. It could be they'd all just lost their phones, or the fact that everyone in Midgar and Edge was probably dialing up the atmosphere trying to find each other still.

Denzel nodded. "And Marlene, when her father's away. Tifa said she thinks a lot more kids are probably going to need to move in with us now. There are a lot of orphans in Edge."

"Yeah, I'm sure Meteorfall made sure of that," Reno sighed. "Not to mention the Geostigma plague."

"I'm glad my parents didn't have to see Meteor. It was horrible," the boy said. He shuddered at the memory of the thing ripping up buildings and setting the sky on fire. "They died before, when the Sector 7 Plate collapsed."

Rude stiffened.

Reno nearly choked on his drink. "Oh?"

The boy nodded again. "It's okay, though. I know they're in the Lifestream and I'll be with them again someday."

A little shaken, Reno nodded. "Yeah, that's a good way to look at it."

"Well, I'm gonna go see if anyone else needs any help. Thank you, for saving Cloud, I mean," Denzel said, getting up. "Tifa told me you guys found him. I'm really glad he's okay. Thanks."

"No problem," Reno said. "See you later, kid," he added as the boy waved and left the room.

The Turks continued to rest in silence, until Rude said, "He's a good kid. It's good that he makes himself useful."

"Yeah," Reno agreed, sipping the hot soda like it was delicious alcohol.

Rude watched his partner for several moments and did not like what he inferred to be going on in that thick, redheaded skull. They had to be careful. They could not wear their guilt like a shroud, or the world would happily bury them. Rude stretched out a hand and touched his partner's shoulder.

"Hey."

Reno met his gaze.

"There's no use thinking about it too much," Rude told him. "It's like Tseng said, all we can do now is live our lives, and atone when we can."

Reno nodded, but his eyes looked uncertain.

"I'm stepping outside for a while." Rude stood up, brushing off his suit and setting the unopened can down on the metal coffee table. "You can have it, if you want. I hate soda."

"Okay."

And Rude left him to brood.

The empty can was crushed in his grip. He sighed.

"How can you expect to atone," Vincent asked from his shadows, and Reno jumped, "if you can't even own up to what you've done?"

Reno's wide eyes snapped to where the voice had emerged. The shape shifter was in a dark corner of the room, which seemed darker than the rest. "Yeesh, how long have you been there? Do you try to be this creepy?"

The lights in the room flickered as if in answer, and a chill went up the Turk's spine.

"To answer your question, I was here before you. You just didn't notice me," Vincent said.

_He's just been hanging out this whole time? Creepy with a capital C!_ Reno thought.

"Didn't mean to ignore you," the Turk said, trying to sound unaffected by that particular revelation. Reno twisted around on the couch to face the other better. One of his arms hung lazily down the back of the couch. He kept his eyes trained on Vincent.

"I wasn't there, but I know it was you that destroyed the pillar that day," Vincent said. There was no accusation in the voice, just a statement of the truth.

"You guys sure like to gossip," Reno joked, but his eyes darkened at the memory.

Of course he hadn't wanted to crush the slums just to stomp out AVALANCHE. Questioning, as Heidegger had put it oh so many times, just wasn't in his job description. Not only that, but there were the other Turks to think about. Not a single life in Sector 7 was worth more to Reno than the lives of Rude, Tseng, and Elena.

"I found out. Someday the boy might discover the truth, too," Vincent continued. "Wouldn't you rather be the one who told him?"

"You think that kid will gain anything from knowing I killed his folks?" Reno asked. "You think it'll change anything?"

"It isn't about the boy. Pretending it didn't happen certainly won't do _you_ any good."

A degree of fury swept around in Reno's chest. "Oh, I see. I should just go sit in a dark room and beat myself up about it a few hours a day. Maybe go lock myself up in a basement. Is that what you would do? Sorry, that just isn't my style."

"Seems like you're doing something similar," Vincent pointed out, gesturing around the room, and the Turk swore those crimson eyes looked amused.

Reno stumbled over his next set of words, incredibly pissed that he'd just lost a verbal spar with some half-dead pet science project of Hojo's. Who did this freak think he was, anyway?

"Calm down. I wasn't trying to pick a fight with you," Vincent assured. "I just see a little of myself in your plight. It's possible that, being a Turk, you already know more about my past and the mistakes I have made, and how my sins have led to destruction unimaginable in the lives of so many through Sephiroth. There are things that, being older now, I wish I would have faced in my youth rather than allowed to fester while I locked myself up in a basement."

Reno did calm down. He thought about what he knew of this man. He'd heard things, read things. Seeing Vincent Valentine in person made it easy to believe every far-fetched report he'd ever read, that was for sure.

"Our director, Tseng, told me that Veld knew you—that you were… one of us once," Reno said. "I have to admit, looking at you right now it's hard to imagine you in a suit and tie. Then again, I've read that you weren't always the way you are now."

"You likely weren't even born, but yes, I was a Turk long ago."

Reno sighed. "The kid wouldn't gain anything from knowing I blew up that pillar except maybe a face to hate. He knows Shin-Ra was responsible. He knows I'm a Turk. Isn't that enough?"

"If it is enough for you, then yes. As leftovers of what stands as Shin-Ra's legacy, you and I share a debt to the Planet," Vincent replied. "What if your president has a change of heart and decides to put his own interests above those of the Planet's once again? I'm not sure what you would do. Or let me put it this way, why did you destroy the Sector 7 pillar?"

"To keep my friends out of trouble."

"Do you regret doing it?"

Reno studied the stiff fabric of the couch and thought about it, and shook his head. "I'm sorry it happened, but I'm not sorry that it kept my friends and me out of trouble. Make sense?"

Vincent dipped his head. "Yes, and it is precisely why I have doubts about Shin-Ra's ability to truly reform."

"Choosing my colleagues over a bunch of strangers wasn't wrong," Reno muttered, but looked only half-convinced at his own words.

"We understand why you don't trust us," Rude said from the doorway, garnering the attention of Vincent and his partner. He'd already scanned Reno and noted the other was unharmed, if a little frazzled.

"Hopefully, with time, Shin-Ra can make amends. It's one of our primary objectives now," Rude assured.

"I hope you're right," Vincent said, with no small warning in his tone, but also with sincerity. A reformed Shin-Ra could continue to prove useful. He wondered how involved, if at all, Shin-Ra had become with the World Regenesis Organization, considering that Reeve was in charge of the WRO. Hopefully Shin-Ra would see the benefit in helping, rather than hindering, Reeve's reconstruction effort.

Rude looked to his partner. "We're about to land."

"'Kay," Reno said, extracting himself from the stiff cushions. On his way out the door, he paused and addressed Vincent.

"You saved Tseng and Elena from those baby Sephiroths, right?"

"Yes," Vincent confirmed.

Reno looked back at him and smiled. Vincent was taken aback by the sincerity in those green eyes.

"Thanks," Reno said.

"Veld would have approved," Vincent replied, but accepted the Turk's gratitude with a small nod.

Reno's face brightened at the man's name. He turned and followed Rude out the door.

* * *

"Do you know where to look?" Tifa asked. She stood by the rails alongside the two Turks. Marlene, Cloud, and Denzel also lingered, while the rest of the ship disembarked. She watched the countless people they'd given a ride empty out and head towards the outskirts of Edge.

"There are a few places we know to check," Reno said. His eyes were already on the city. Surely the others were still there. Surely they were okay. Surely at least one bar was still unscathed and functioning. His throat itched for a drink.

"The sun will be down in a few hours," Cloud reminded. "If you need a place to stay tonight, you know where the Seventh Heaven is. There's always a spare room for guests."

Reno laughed. "Are you sure? I heard you were about to inherit a bunch of kids." He nodded towards the little crowd of orphans that were still hanging about the ship. The whole scraggly group had wide eyes and chubby cheeks. They reminded Reno of the younger patients that stayed at Healen Lodge. Was their Geostigma healed, too?

"We've got plenty of room, trust me," Cloud assured, and Tifa smiled at him.

* * *

Once they were in the city, the Turks headed straight for Devil's Cry, an underground bar on the east side of Edge. They sat at the bar, happy to find the place unscathed by the latest crisis due to its underground locale. The bar was full and noisy. People were happy to be alive. Geostigma's cure was the top of conversation. Well, that and the summon that had attacked the center of the city.

"Are you sure we should be here?" Rude asked.

Reno nodded. "Odds are, Tseng and Elena are looking for us, too. If you were them, where would you look?"

"One drink. Then we really should go find the others…"

"Sure, sure…"

Two hours later found Reno snoozing in the folds of his arms on the counter. Beside him rested several empty glasses. Rude watched the door to the bar like a hawk, and almost hated it when Elena came through because it meant Reno had been right.

"Reno! Rude!" Elena's face was a mixture of relief and annoyance. "I've been looking everywhere! I can't believe you guys are here getting smashed! I've been by this place every night and haven't seen you! Didn't you think for a moment we'd be looking for you? Wait, Is Reno alive?"

Rude gave his partner a hard push and the other Turk made indecipherable curses at him.

"Confirmed," Rude said.

"Is all that blood his?" Elena ventured, her voice growing tinier with concern.

Rude shook his head. "He'll explain later. We just got back into the city a few hours ago. Reno figured this was a good place to wait."

Elena laughed. "That's our Reno. I kept thinking I'd find you guys hurt or dying somewhere," she added more seriously. "I'm glad I found you here, like this, It reminds me of old times."

Rude nodded. In a lower voice, he asked, "Where are Tseng and the President?"

Elena sat beside him by pulling up a bar stool and leaned close. "Tseng's already en route to the lodge with the President," she said. "He wanted me to stay behind and search for signs of you two. Now that we're together, we need to follow after them ASAP."

"Well, here we are," Reno said, placing both hands upon the bar counter and stretching his back like a cat. Facing his associates, his glassy eyes found Elena first. It was good to see Elena alive. Every time he saw her alive he felt a little less guilty about having to leave Tseng and her behind at the Northern Crater. And all for what? Jenova's head? He wasn't sure if he could leave them behind again. Then again, if he had stayed and been captured, that little Sephiroth wannabe would have had his reunion a whole lot earlier, and then who knows how badly things could have turned out?

"Do you have a ride?" Rude asked.

Elena nodded. "Yeah, Tseng hooked us up. Just wait till you see it."

Several blocks away from the Devil's Cry, Elena led them into a garage. She picked up a set of keys from the man who owned the place and led them to beautiful Phoenix Axiom IV car. Only five had ever been made, each one a gift to a Shin-Ra executive from the former president. Its black exterior shined like midnight. The seats looked brand new.

"There's no way…" Reno's grin could have split his face. He stumbled closer to the car, but Rude caught his arm to keep him from running drunkenly into it. Reno glanced from the car to his partner.

"Which one of them do you think this one belonged to?" Reno asked him. "Sometimes I swear Tseng does these things just to prove he's got a sense of humor!"

Rude let go of Reno's arm and took a look at the PAIV's glossy steering wheel. "It was Heidegger's. His initials are emblazoned right here on the wheel."

"Oh that's right!" Elena said. "I remember noticing that when Heidegger used to make me chauffeur that butterball Palmer around as a joke. His initials were etched there, too. They probably all had the personalization on their cars."

"At least you weren't stuck driving Scarlet," Reno muttered. "It was embarrassing to be seen with her. The things she got up to..." He rolled his eyes in disgust.

"You got stuck with her?" Elena gagged. "And I thought Heidegger was just picking on me!"

"He tried to make all of us miserable," Reno said, admiring the PAIV to get Scarlet out of his head. The car still looked brand new. The Shin-Ra emblem on the door even had a shine to it.

"Where was it?" Reno asked.

"Tseng said it was left behind in Kalm," Elena explained. "Well, now it's property of Shin-Ra again."

"I get to drive!" Reno snatched at the keys in her palm, but Elena lightly tossed them to Rude.

"Ugh, you're drunk. I think I'd rather trust my life to Rude," she said. "Shot gun!"

"No way!" Reno shamelessly knocked her aside and climbed into the front seat. It was an easy feat considering the car was roofless. Rude opened the driver's door and slide in next to him.

"Oh, fine," Elena pouted. She hopped into the expansive back seat. "There's more room back here anyway."

"Ready to take her for a spin?" Reno slumped in the seat and asked his partner.

Rude shifted gears and hit the pedal hard. Elena was tossed into the floorboard, and Reno was hit in the back of the head moments later for laughing.

* * *

Cloud closed the door to Denzel's room, which the kid now shared with two other boys who were a little younger. All in all, there were eight new additions to house, and all of them were orphans. There were so many homeless kids in Edge. If people weren't careful, the city could turn into one big slum. Something had to be done before all the stray kids formed gangs or started stealing to survive.

"Everyone asleep?" Tifa asked softly when he joined her on the roof, climbing up and taking a seat beside where she'd already been sitting and thinking for the last hour. The stars above were brilliant.

Cloud nodded. "They're all pretty tired. Who can blame them? So much has happened lately..."

"But now we can finally start over," Tifa said hopefully. "With the plague ending, people can finally start truly rebuilding their lives. I really do think everything's going to be okay now, Cloud."

"It's not gonna be easy for Reeve to pull off… but I have to admit, the WRO isn't doing bad considering how bad a shape the Planet's in. I think Reeve knows that we're here if he ever needs us," Cloud said. "Until then, I just want to make everyone in this family safe and happy."

Tifa gave a firm nod of approval. "Let's let Reeve focus on fixing the Planet while we focus on making Edge a better place."

"The wild card is Shin-Ra," Cloud sighed. "I just can't trust them."

Tifa put a hand on his forearm. "That's understandable. Hey, don't look so glum, okay? I think they're just doing their best now. Personally, I hope they really are reformed. It'd make things a lot easier to have one less group of bad guys running around," she joked.

"Rufus Shin-Ra isn't going to be content to stay in the shadows. A guy like him craves power and control," Cloud said. "I know he'll rebuild Shin-Ra. I just don't know what he'll rebuild it to be."

"Cloud, I was so scared when we couldn't find you. You don't know how terrible that was. But then, there they were, carrying you and looking for help. I think we have to at least give them a chance to do better. AVALANCHE may not have done as much harm to the Planet as Shin-Ra, but we still share one thing in common—we all owe the Planet a debt."

"That's true enough," the blond replied. He gazed up at the stars. There weren't many visible; they were very close to Midgar, after all. Still, the stars that he could see were bright little things. They were beautiful.

"Why do you think they helped us?" Cloud asked Tifa.

"Because that's what friends do," she answered.

"Are we sure we want to be friends with them? With Shin-Ra?"

Tifa smiled at him. The moonlight made her skin seem to glow, and her brown eyes were full of warmth and contentment. "You know what's funny? I know they belong to Shin-Ra and that they'll work to rebuild it in some form, but I don't think of them as just Shin-Ra anymore."

"What do you mean?"

"It's a part of who they are, but it's not what they are, Cloud," Tifa said. "Ask yourself this, would you want to see any of them hurt? Would you want to see Reno hurt or tortured? Or the blonde lady, Elena? Could you really just stand by if you saw them suffering?"

Cloud thought about it. There had been a time that he'd personally wanted to be the one to kill them, to wipe Shin-Ra out and rid the world of their menace. He'd hated them passionately for their crimes not just against himself and his loved ones, but against all humanity.

"No," Cloud admitted. "The world sure has changed, huh?"

Tifa nodded. "I'll admit, the reason I came up here tonight was I thought I might see Reno and Rude trying to find our bar in the dark."

More light was yet another thing Edge needed to be safer.

"Well, they're not here, so that means they were probably successful," Cloud assured her. "Besides, they've been here before. They have your number, right?"

"They have _all_ our numbers I bet. I don't know how, but I'm sure they'd know a way to contact even Vincent if they wanted," Tifa said, grinning. She watched the stars for a moment. She loved looking at the stars with Cloud. It was something they'd done so much as children. It felt like something that belonged to them.

"Cloud," she asked. "Do you remember anything before you fell unconscious?"

Cloud's eyes watched the skies as well. He nodded. "Yeah, I remember Yazoo and Loz shooting me. It didn't even hurt. I was just shocked that it happened, I guess." His blue eyes drifted from the sky to rest on Tifa.

"I remember being angry because I was so sure I was going to die and be taken away from everyone by those idiots," he continued. "I know I attacked them. They had Materia in their bodies that caused a huge explosion. The next thing I remember is lying on my side and somebody hitting me. I think I was on fire."

"That was probably the Turks," Tifa said.

Cloud remembered clearly a pair of concerned green eyes with signature tattoos beneath them. He remembered flat palms beating the fire that burned him into smoke, and the sensation of being carried as blurry images of Midgar's tangled ruins passed by. There was the feeling of red hair brushing against his face, and pain embracing him, and pain swallowing him.

"Yeah. I remember bits and pieces of them carrying me," Cloud told her. "Then I dreamed about Aerith, and well, the rest you know."

She nodded and a few minutes later stood up. "Well, I'm going to bed. There are going to be a lot of bellies to feed in the morning," she said, thinking of all the kids, and bid him goodnight.

Alone on the roof, Cloud watched the streets, wondering if the Turks had found Rufus and the others.


	3. ShinRas New Objectives

**Disclaimer: **I do not own anything.

**3. Shin-Ra's New Objectives**

* * *

The drive up to the lodge was long and quiet. It was the kind of ride Rude appreciated. His colleagues were silent, and that was just fine with the older Turk. He was content with their presence and the fact that everyone he cared about, which was only a handful of people, was alive. As long as those people were in the world, Rude knew he could handle whatever fate came up with next, be it the attempted reunion of a dead alien's body parts or the unending hatred of Sephiroth manifesting into human form again.

The PAIV didn't have a roof, and the crisp air rushing past created a lulling white noise that Reno and Elena had succumbed to hours earlier. Rude was exhausted, too, but he didn't mind letting them rest while he drove the car further from Edge and deeper into the countryside.

Crossing the grasslands meant traveling over roads composed of dirt, but now that Rude was finally getting into mountainous terrain, the roads were paved. Years ago Shin-Ra had commissioned them to be covered in concrete to help SOLDIER and transport trucks stay on the narrow, winding paths that slid through the hills and up into the mountain range. Still, Rude could tell the road needed an update. He could see patches of grass breaking up the edges. Given enough time, the road would submit to the forest if something wasn't done to repair it. He figured that was something for the WRO to handle.

All around the road a thick swathe of trees loomed. The sun was up but the height of the trees obscured much of its afternoon glow. The orange light filtered through the trees just enough that Rude didn't need to flip on the car's headlights.

The closer the Turks got to the lodge the easier it would be for Rude to stop worrying about ambushes and other surprise attacks. The patients living in the building accepted, even seemed to appreciate Shin-Ra's presence. The current staff was composed almost entirely of returned Shin-Ra employees, and the other staffers lived in the little unnamed villages that were nestled in the hills near the lodge. Over the previous two years, the lodge and the villages had become more or less Shin-Ra territory. Both the tiny remnants of SOLDIER, numbering only thirteen thus far, and the Turks actively kept the area free of monsters and Roamers, who were traveling groups of plunderers that had cropped up after Meteorfall.

Rude glanced at the rearview mirror.

Elena sat in the back seat. Rude saw her blonde head dip as she accidentally dozed off every few miles, but a sharp turn or a bump would always snap her back awake. Her brown eyes were tired. He hadn't asked her yet about the extent of her injuries. He knew Tseng and she had been tortured by the Remnants, but not the details. Whatever had happened, Elena seemed close to normal. He didn't want to think about what she might have looked like before Materia was put to her wounds.

He doubted either of them would ever speak of it.

Instead, she had told him about the miraculous rain that had fallen in Edge. The President's Geostigma was gone. He was cured. They wouldn't have to worry about it anymore, and Rude felt a great pressure lifted from his shoulders at the thought. He was anxious to confirm her news with his own eyes, though.

Beside him, Reno was asleep, slumped against both the door and the seat with his bent knees almost touching his forehead. His shoes were planted against the dash. One arm was draped over his stomach and the other lay limp at his side. How the redhead found such a position comfortable for so many miles eluded his partner entirely. He was bloody and dusty and still carried the faint scent of alcohol about him.

_Just like the old days,_ Rude mused to himself. His own appearance wasn't much better. He couldn't wait to clean up. It bothered his inner professionalism to be in such an unkempt state.

Elena's PHS rang and she jumped awake again, fumbling to answer it. She cleared her throat and flipped it open.

"Hello? Elena here… Yes, sir, we're in route as I speak. I found them last night and we've been on the road ever since. Can you believe I found them in a bar? Oh, and you should've seen their faces when they saw this car. Did you know it belonged to Heidegger when you found it?... Oh, I guess of course you did."

She had to raise her voice to be heard over the wind as the car drove along. "They're both in good condition. How's the President?... That's good to hear. It's really gone, huh?... All right, sir. ETA is tomorrow at the latest. We don't plan on stopping unless it's to refuel. See you soon, sir. We will, sir. …What about them?"

Elena listened for several seconds. Her face fell and she said, "…Oh. That's… unfortunate. All right, sir. We're on our way."

Elena closed her PHS and slipped it away. She leaned forward, placing her forearms on the back of the front seat.

"Tseng's glad you two are okay," she said loudly so Rude could hear her. "He told us to stay out of trouble and get home, ASAP. Do you want me to drive for awhile?"

"I got it. I take it there's extra fuel in the trunk?" Rude asked. There certainly wasn't going to be a town anytime soon.

"Yeah," Elena confirmed. "Let me know if you need to swap. Have you gotten any rest at all? Reno's out like a baby." She waved a hand over the redhead's face and got no reaction, just more steady breathing.

Rude scoffed. "I'm good. I'm better at conserving energy than he is."

"Careful," Elena warned. "He might hear you."

"He knows it's true," Rude said, thinking of how his partner had passed out on the airship. Exhaustion and the ship's elevation had played their parts, but Reno was the type to keep going until he dropped anyway.

Elena smiled. She was so fond of these two. If she could have grown up with two older brothers instead of just one perfect elder sister, she would have wanted them. Elena thought about it as she rested her chin on her arms and watched Reno sleep. Shadows and sun-filtered light jumped across their faces as the car passed through the trees.

Pain lingered in her shoulder blades. There were places all over her body that still hurt from the torment those insane children had put her through. Her left hand was particularly tender. Their cruelty still frightened her in nightmares, and the sounds of Tseng being tortured would wake her up at night and she'd find herself alone, but safe. Her mind was developing the habit of pushing past those memories while she was awake the moment she began to dwell on them. She couldn't face them yet. She had gotten through it with Tseng's help, and because of that strange man—Vincent Valentine. She wanted to ask him why he'd bothered to save them. She wanted to ask Tseng how he was handling all of it, but she didn't want to bring it up at the same time.

There had been so much pain, and she had accepted death as a mercy that was coming for both of them. This peaceful car ride with two of the most important people in her world seemed so surreal to her. Being alive felt like a good dream she didn't want to spoil thinking about nightmares. She was so tired, but she didn't want to rest until she was truly sure that Reno and Rude wouldn't disappear.

"Everything okay at the lodge?"

Elena sighed and turned her face towards Rude. A little sadness leaked into her expression.

"Afraid not. All of the patients still have the stigma. Some of the kids are doing really awful. Tseng thinks there are probably people all over the world who are still suffering. It's really not fair, you know? I thought we had this thing beat, like the Lifestream had forgiven us or something. Tseng thinks Aerith sent the rain just to help. I wonder if she really is that powerful?"

Rude reached into his jacket and pulled out the flask he'd filled up at the church. He handed it back to Elena. "There's a place we found—that old church in Sector 5. The water there heals Geostigma just like you said the rain cured people around Edge. I took some hoping it could help the President."

Elena held the flask. Her brown eyes brightened at the idea. "You sure it works?"

He nodded. "We saw it heal people over and over again, but we've yet to see if an infected person has to be at the church for it to work."

"It's just like the rain. Rude, that's great!" Elena held the flask like it was full of liquid diamonds. "With the President's permission, we can go back and get more for the people at Healen and the villages. We can save all of them."

Again Rude nodded, and couldn't help a small smile at her enthusiasm. _The next generation of Turks will all be missionaries at this rate._

* * *

He sat at the bar with a glass of water in his hand.

Cloud watched the children clamor about the bar, helping Tifa wash it up and close it down for the night. He guessed they enjoyed being up late and being trusted with grownup work. They washed tables, swept up trash, and scrubbed empty mugs and glasses.

Marlene was busily stacking dried off dishes in their place. Her father was gone on another trip, this time to meet with Reeve. As far as Cloud could tell it didn't seem to bother the girl. She liked being with all the kids, especially Denzel.

Aside from those two, there were eight new children living with them. The youngest was at least four and the oldest about the same age as Denzel. The rest looked about Marlene sized. Cloud hadn't spoken very much with any of them yet. He'd only caught a few of their names, but he doubted he could match even the names with the right faces.  
He listened as Tifa's radio announced the next day's forecast, then the latest monster sightings, and finally general information from the WRO on how to get assistance for various needs.

There was a five minute pause in the broadcast before a segment started up with a bunch of people debating back and forth about the creature that had attacked Edge and Shin-Ra's possible involvement. Cloud turned the radio down and barely paid attention.

Tifa and the children were upstairs and in their rooms when he turned it back up an hour later. He listened as Reeve's prerecorded voice came over the speakers calmly urging citizens to stay out of Midgar until further notice. There was also mention of the stigma's cure and a promise that the WRO would begin delivering it in Edge as soon as possible.

Cloud waited a few minutes more, but the radio had fallen silent. He shut it off and set his empty water glass down. He headed for the door. According to the radio, the monsters that skirted around Edge were creeping closer to his side of town. He would go for one more patrol before returning home and getting some sleep. He left the bar, locking the door on his way out.

At the city's perimeter his eyes fell over the dark ruins of Midgar. The dead quiet that greeted him was a sure sign of monsters lurking about. They were prowling between the twisted bridges and heaps of rubble that connected Edge to Midgar.

In the silence he thought about Reno.

_Farewell. If we both survive… If we can save our lives…_ the Turk had told him, before running off into the dark subway tunnels with Rude and Elena.

There had been no final fight between AVALANCHE and them, not with Rufus supposedly dead and Meteor only days away from obliterating all life on the planet. Not with Hojo about to fire off the Sister Ray to help Sephiroth, or with Scarlet and Heidegger running the world under martial law.

In retrospect, they were probably running off to find Rufus. At the moment Cloud hadn't cared. A fight with them would have accomplished nothing, so he'd been glad to avoid it.

Still…

"If we both survive… If we can save our lives," Cloud said to himself, his blue eyes scanning the ruins and catching movement. The monsters were slowly picking their way towards him.

If we can save our lives, what then? Cloud wondered, drawing his fusion sword. He figured he'd never know what had been on the Turk's mind that day. Cloud dismissed the memory and leapt down into the wreckage that spanned between Midgar and Edge to where the monsters seemed thickest.

* * *

It was early morning dark outside when the sleek PAIV rolled to a stop outside the lodge. A young SOLDIER named Hector quickly came and opened the driver's door for Elena, who stepped out with a big yawn. She stretched her arms before dropping the keys in his hand.

Like all of 3rd Class SOLDIERs, Hector wore a blue turtleneck sweater and baggy pants under his armor. He had sky blue Mako eyes and short, spiky brown hair. A long sword was strapped to his back.

"Hey, Hector," Elena said sleepily. She looked over at Reno, who was being shaken awake by an exhausted Rude. Elena shook her head. One had refused to wake up the whole trip and the other had barely agreed to rest. She had no idea how Rude could just keep going like that.

"Sweet ride," Hector said, admiring the car as he slipped into the front seat. "It's good to see you guys again. I heard things got crazy in Edge. We all got back here as soon as we could when we found out the President was on his way back to the lodge. Man, you wouldn't believe how much I panicked, but it's all turned out okay. We sure are a lucky bunch of bastards, huh?"

"Sure are," Elena agreed.

Reno batted Rude's hands away, extracted himself from the car, and stretched. His green eyes looked his partner up and down. "You look pretty rough, yo."

Rude snorted. "Not all of us had our beauty sleep."

Hector left to park the PAIV in a small cavern near the lodge where several vehicles were kept.

Reno laughed and made a show of brushing off Rude's dust-covered jacket. "I think you're gonna need a coma. Here, let's go in before you go into one right here."

Rude and Elena followed Reno up the stairs and the long ramp that led to the lodge's east foyer door. The redhead was a little too energetic for either of them. He had to stop twice to wait for them, each time fidgeting and calling impatiently for them to hurry up. The second time he missed the shared look of half-hearted annoyance Elena and Rude swapped behind his back.

Tseng met them at the door, holding it open while they filed in. No one missed the way he subtly scanned all three of them for injuries, or the way his gaze lingered a little longer on Elena, who met his dark eyes with her own and smiled a little.

The President was on the couch, reclined with a leg crossed over a knee and reading a book by lamplight. His wheelchair was close at hand, but the blanket was gone, as were some of the bandages that covered much of his upper body. He still looked too pale. Even with the stigma gone, the damage it had wrought was still affecting him. Time would heal what Materia had not.

It was a strange relief to know that time wasn't the enemy anymore.

Reno's face lit up. "So it's true, sir? You really are healed?"

Rufus nodded, inwardly pleased to see the Turk's earnest enthusiasm for his wellbeing. He'd grown up around so many yes-men and flatterers that he found any spark of sincerity to be refreshing. He regarded Reno and Rude for a moment to take in their torn up uniforms and the bloodstains that were faded across their skin and clothes.

"Where have you been?" he asked, calm and quiet.

Rude looked to Reno, and Reno said, "We tried to blow up two of them but the guys somehow survived. Then Sephiroth showed up in Midgar and started tearin' the place up until Cloud finally killed him or sent 'em back to the Lifestream or whatever. We went to help and found Cloud pretty beat up, so we took care of him until his buddies found us in that airship of theirs and then all of us went to that church in Sector 5."

"Oh that's right!" Elena fished the flask Rude had given her out of her jacket. "Reno and Rude found some water at the church that works just like the rain that cured you, sir."

"Yeah, Cloud said the Ancient told him to go there in a dream or something. Apparently she told half of Edge," Reno explained. "It was like a circus out there. The church has a large pool of the water in it. We saw it cure lots of people, so Rude brought some back in case you needed it, sir."

"Testing has shown that the stigma is completely removed from my body," Rufus told them. "However, I'm sure you can identify those here that need the cure to survive even the next 24 hours. Two residents died just this morning. Both of them were children."

All of the Turks glanced down at their feet. All but Tseng thought of the kids living at the lodge and wondered which two were now buried in the valley below. Tseng knew of course, having been the one to bury them.

"Sir, we were wondering if we could return to the church and get more of the water to heal everyone here," Elena requested. "And there a lot of people dying from it in the villages, too."

Rufus didn't even take time to think about it. He gave her a short consenting nod. "Tomorrow Tseng and you will fly out there and retrieve what's necessary."

Elena smiled, but managed to control the happiness bubbling up in her chest. She couldn't wait to finally end it. She couldn't wait to finally see the people around her have their lives back.

"Sir," Reno began, sharing a brief look with his partner. When Rufus's gaze fell on the redhead, the Turk continued. "The water's not the only interesting thing we saw in Sector 5."

Beside him Rude nodded.

"A woman with green hair and blue eyes was reported taking lots of it from the church before Rude and I got inside," Reno said. "We both caught a few glimpses of her, too."

"She looked like Paige Suell," Rude added.

A little ice came over the President's blue eyes. "Scarlet's personal assistant."

Reno and Rude nodded, both of them ignoring the shock on Elena's face. They'd forgotten to mention it to her during the ride. They'd forgotten to call Tseng about it, too.

"If she's runnin' around we figured Scarlet might be alive. Maybe even that clown, Heidegger," Reno said, not even bothering to hide his dislike for the two former executives.

"It's worth looking into," Tseng said. "Scarlet may be accessing company resources and using them to her own ends."

They all could see, almost hear, the wheels turning in the President's head. He looked about to say something, but then changed his mind. Instead he gripped his cane and used it to pull himself up to his feet. None of them moved to help him. All of them watched him walk to the wheelchair and manage to sit down in it without losing an inch of grace.

All of them were ready for the day when he wouldn't need the chair at all.

"Aside from Reno, the rest of you look about as tired as I am. This discussion can continue in the morning before Tseng and Elena leave for Sector 5," Rufus said, and they all nodded.

"I'm not tired so I'll handle this," Reno said, holding out a hand and receiving the flask of curative water from Elena.

"Make sure you clean up first," Tseng advised, and Reno nodded. The patients at Healen didn't need to see Shin-Ra personnel all dirtied up and covered in dried blood.

Trusting Reno to locate the patients who could benefit from the water the most, the President and the other Turks headed off for bed.

Reno looked at the flask in his hand and admired it for the powerful water it contained. He hoped there was enough water in that church to wipe the stigma completely out of the world. He wondered what would happen if there wasn't.

* * *

Reno quietly distributed the cure to as many children as he could before his small supply ran out. He made them promise to keep the water a secret and tried to impress upon them that the other patients might get really upset if they found out there was cure and they couldn't have any yet. In the end, Reno could only hope the kids kept their traps shut until Elena and Tseng made the trip back to Sector 5.

To help the cured children keep the secret, Reno had all of them placed under a pretend 48 hour emergency quarantine. All they had to do was hang out in a room for a couple of days and keep quiet. He'd been sure to ask the staff to take care of them, bring them food and toys and such. He'd even promised to give the kids something if they didn't spill what they knew.

Hours later found Reno outside and sitting behind the lodge with some of SOLDIER's remnants.

Night was fading fast as the sun seemed to slowly crawl up from the ground. It turned the horizon into a brilliant strip of gold.

Reno watched the clouds become visible as he sat on the grass with his back against the wooden scaffolding that supported the lodge. Beside him sat Hector and another SOLDIER named Darnell, and standing over the three of them was a guy named Faust.

Faust was a 1st Class SOLDIER who made sure everyone he encountered knew it. He was very tall, very muscular, and had blue Mako eyes. His blond hair was cut very close to his scalp and like his fellow SOLDIERs, he carried a long sword on his back. Currently he was going on and on about his four girlfriends in Junon, but Reno only half-listened.

"Man, you know no girl's gonna pay for you a Golden Saucer ticket," Darnell said, his brown eyes full of skepticism. "Women like to be taken on dates, not take other people."

"That might be your experience, but I've got 'em throwing all kinds of offers at me," Faust bragged. "There's a girl I got in Edge who swears she'll pay me to get her pregnant."

Hector and Darnell scoffed.

"I've been meaning to get over there and look for a girl I was dating before all that crazy shit went down," Darnell said. "I hope she made it out of Midgar alive. Damn she was beautiful, and smart, too. She was going to the military school on a scholarship because she was just that good with guns."

"Next time we're off we outta go look for her," Hector offered, scratching at the back of his head.

"I don't know, two years is a long time," Faust warned. "If she did survive that girl's probably moved on. Hell, she might even be married and put out a few kids by now."

"Yeah," Darnell agreed, and he couldn't help but feel bitter at the idea. "Man, time's like this I miss our old headquarters like crazy. All these sick people and nature and shit have taken some time gettin' used to."

"It's not for forever," Hector said. "Now that he's better you know the President isn't gonna hang around some lodge the rest of his life."

"I know, but don't you miss kickin' back on Floor 61? I hate to think of that place as being nothin' more than dust and debris now," Darnell admitted. His brown eyes fell. "It's just sad, man."

Reno and Hector nodded. There were things the Turk definitely missed, even simple things like walking the halls of Shin-Ra Tower or the view from the glass elevators. From them and the executive balconies, he'd seen Midgar from a vantage that most people never did. It had been a shadowy, dangerous place to live, but it had also been a city of lights.

He missed not doing any work in his office. He missed his bedroom. He missed walking through the massive front doors of Shin-Ra, Inc. and feeling like he was home after long missions. He missed the power of walking into any city and knowing that everyone in it, whether from loyalty or fear, respected the company he worked for.

There were also aspects of the old life that he didn't miss. He did not miss assassinating innocent family members of known terrorists, or kidnapping unwilling candidates for the SOLDIER program, especially when he was certain that some never left Hojo's labs. He didn't miss torturing people merely because the former president didn't like them, and he definitely did not miss the constant feeling of a ready noose hanging around his neck.

They'd walked such a fine line with that man. After what happened with Veld, the then-president had made a point of making sure the Turks knew they were expendable at a moment's notice. They were only as valuable as their latest performance. They were only trusted out of necessity.

Reno heard footsteps approaching them. He looked up from his musings and saw a Shin-Ra senior tech, one of those prodigy kids that had worked in security, hurrying towards him and the small gathering of SOLDIERs.

"Holy shit, something's brought the ghost out of his cave," Faust said loudly. "Careful, Dante, there's about to be daylight out here."

"Ha, ha. Your jokes are always so original," Dante muttered. His face and hands, the only parts of his white skin that could be seen, were as white as the moon in the brightening sky. His shaggy hair was white, too. His red tinged eyes were on Reno.

"Figures you're hiding behind the building. I've been looking all over for you," Dante grumbled at the Turk. In his hands he held something that looked like a cross between a mask and a pair of goggles.

"What for?" Reno asked, getting up. The contraption Dante held was immediately put in his hands. "Oh. Well this looks familiar."

The Turk turned the headset over in his fingers. Tseng and Elena had been using headsets just like it at the Northern Crater to help them locate Jenova's head. Reno had never used one before, but he knew it involved temperature readings.

"It's a SH-2. Where's your PHS?" Dante asked. "I called like six times. The President told me yesterday that Elena and you are going to be looking for Jenova again soon. C'mon so I can show you how to use this without breaking it. Tseng and Elena lost theirs, so this is the only one we got left."

"And he's back to his cave!" Faust announced. Hector and Darnell snickered.

"It's charging, and technically they didn't lose theirs," Reno said defensively. "They were kidnapped and nearly tortured to death. Securing these things was probably the last thing on their minds," he said, waggling the headset in the air.

"Careful with that!" Dante snapped. "You're right, but hey, maybe Elena and you can find them while you guys are out there?"

Reno nodded as he followed the tech.

* * *

Dante led him to the lodge's cafeteria, which was empty except for a couple of SOLDIERS who sat eating their breakfast. He followed Dante to the other side of the room and sat across from him at one of the rectangular tables.

Reno laid the headset on the table. "So how's it any different from night vision goggles?" he asked the tech.

"Well, in many ways it's not that different," Dante admitted. "With this on you should be able to see a lot better in a dark place like the Northern Crater. Anything hot, like a fire, will show up bright white when you're wearing these, but a person might look kinda red or pink, depending on how warm they are."

"What will Jenova look like?" Reno asked quietly as he slipped the mask-like headset over his face. He fastened it behind his head and looked around. The colors in the room all shifted and became brighter, almost seeming to glow. It was easy to pick out the SOLDIERS from the wall. They were a brilliant red while the wall behind them appeared blue. Their drinks, cold form ice, looked black.

"Well just remember that what you're really seeing is a temperature reading. The hotter something is, the better it'll show up," Dante explained. He lowered his voice. "As for Jenova, your headset has a scanner built into it that seeks out the alien's unique bio-signature. Even if it's just a glob of cells, you should be able to find it with this baby on."

"How'd you manage that?" Reno asked.

"That's classified info," Dante said, smirking, but then added, "I used some of the samples that were found at HQ last year. We were just lucky that one of Professor Hojo's assistants answered the President's call to return to work. He led Tseng straight to the safe even with HQ a total mess."

"Huh, I never even knew about that mission," Reno said, frowning. Tseng got to have all the fun. Reno took the headset off. "You're sure she'll show up even with the place being so cold and all?"

Dante nodded. "Tseng said Jenova appeared as something warm in the infrared even though… Well… It's dead, isn't it?"

"I don't think she can die as long as any of her body's left," Reno said. "I mean, you were there that night when she broke out and killed all those people at headquarters, too, right? She did all that damage even without her head."

"I was there, but I was told to get out of the building before I saw anything," Dante admitted. He'd always felt a little bad about cutting out without doing more to contain the creature, but he'd been scared. All that blood and screaming had been too much.

"Did you see it?" the tech asked.

"Nah, Cloud and his buddies had gotten the best of me. I was stuck in the medical facility on Floor 50, but I've seen the security footage." Reno handed the headset back to Dante. He noticed the other Turks entering the cafeteria, probably in search of coffee. Reno waved them over and they took their seats beside him and the tech.

Elena looked exhausted. Her hands supported her chin as she rested on her elbows against the tabletop. She turned a brown-eyed glare on Dante. "Eight! My PHS went off eight times this morning!"

"Why didn't you answer it?" Dante asked. "I stopped calling when I remembered you already knew about the SH-2. Sorry."

"You can apologize by getting me coffee," the blonde Turk grumbled.

"Fine," Dante said, standing with a roll of his eyes. He left the headset on the table and went over to a counter where the SOLDIERs already had a brew going.

Reno grinned at how easy the kid was to boss around. Being only sixteen and working with a bunch of adults left the tech wide open to it.

"Dante was telling me that Jenova shows up as something alive with this thing," he told his fellow Turks and gestured at the headset. "Did you know that we're heading back to find more more of her?" he asked Elena.

Elena nodded sleepily. "The piece we found looked pink and kind of red at the edges. Weird, huh?"

Dante returned to his seat, settling down between Rude and Elena. He passed out his armful of coffee mugs and picked up his conversation with Reno again.

"How'd you get out of the medical facility with all of that chaos going on?" the tech asked, sipping his coffee.

"Rude came and got me out," Reno said. "It was slow going because people kept stopping us and screaming for us to do something about Sephiroth. There wasn't much I could do, and Rude was stuck helping me, so—"

"I got us out by the fire escape," Rude finished.

"I'm glad I wasn't there," Elena said, placing her empty cup back on the table. Without a word Reno slid his across to her and she picked it up for a long sip.

"We're fortunate that Jenova was so focused on killing the former president," Tseng said from his place next to Reno. "Although it killed nearly every person in its path, things could have been a lot worse."

"Did you see it?" Dante asked.

The Director shook his head. "We were too busy evacuating 70 floors worth of people and making sure Reno escaped. Heidegger and most of the other executives had fled the building, so SOLDIER looked to us for direction."

"It had morphed into the form of Sephiroth," Rude added. "Anyone who saw anything and lived to tell about it was convinced it was him."

Dante nodded. Of course no one had seen the creature. He'd forgotten about it taking on the guise of Sephiroth during its rampage.

Elena finished her second cup and sprang up from her chair, a new woman. "The President said Tseng and I are cleared to leave for Sector 5 as soon as he's sure we all speak to him, so let's hurry!"

* * *

Tseng and the other three Turks stood in a line a few feet behind him, waiting for him to lay out the Company's new goals now that the stigma no longer threatened his life.

"Our first priority is always the preservation of ourselves," Rufus said, turning partway so that he could see that their attention was locked on him. "To that end, when you are finished bringing the cure here and to the villages that surround us, you're next assignment is to convince Reeve that his organization can only benefit from having Shin-Ra as an ally. The next step in rebuilding this world is to spread the cure and end the plague. Make Reeve understand that the Turks would be useful in the effort."

"Yes, sir," the Turks said.

"Anything else, sir?" Tseng asked.

"Reeve may put on a friendly face, but he'll be suspicious of your every move. Once you get him to agree to let you work alongside the WRO, insist that you travel in our own helicopter bearing our own emblem. If he questions why, have him believe that we want the public to see us as active participants in the cure's distribution. When the opportunity arises, Reno and Elena will take the helicopter to the Northern Crater and finish the search for Jenova's remains. Regaining control of Jenova is paramount to our self-preservation," Rufus reminded them.

The Turks nodded.

"Reeve will probably want to pair you with some of his own operatives. If this is the case, you'll have to create your own opportunity to part ways with them. The last thing we want is the WRO monitoring our activities in the north," he said, meeting Reno's eyes as the Turk nodded.

* * *

Tseng and Elena left for Sector 5 and returned within the same day. It took another day to distribute the cure to everyone at the lodge and the small villages in the valley. When at last the job was finished, the Turks left SOLDIER to protect the President and headed off in a helicopter for the wastelands that surrounded Midgar.

"There it is," Reno said some time later, flying them towards the large base. "So should we go in guns blazing or sneak in and scare him into letting us help out?" he asked Tseng, who sat beside him in the co-pilot's seat.

Tseng didn't even bother to respond to his second-in-command. They all knew full well that Reeve was expecting them and would probably be waiting on the roof to greet them.

"Land there," Tseng pointed once they were hovering over the massive flat roof. Just as he'd figured, he spotted Reeve awaiting their arrival. A couple of WRO soldiers stood on either side of the man. Reeve himself wore a long blue trench coat that was buffeted by the helicopter's landing.

Tseng was the first off of the helicopter. His dark eyes scanned the perimeter and found the WRO's base of operations to utterly lack in aesthetic quality. This was not a place of business as Shin-Ra headquarters had been. The large base was a command center. It was a place to house vehicles and supplies between their uses. The WRO's volunteer forces were probably trained in the building, too.

"A personal visit from the Turks," Reeve remarked as he walked up to the Director. His guards began to follow, but he held up a hand and they paused. "So what's the occasion? I doubt you're here to assassinate me. People usually don't call ahead."

Interested, Tseng's eyebrows lifted briefly. "Has someone made an attempt on your life, sir?"

The other three Turks came to stand behind him. They kept their postures relaxed. They were calm and friendly, and both Reno and Elena wore casual smiles that Reeve both instantly liked and distrusted.

His dark eyes met Tseng's. "Attempt is the key word, Tseng. Well, why don't we go inside and you can tell me why Rufus has sent not just one, but all of you here since it's not to kill or kidnap me," he joked.

They were barely twenty feet into the building when they encountered another familiar face.

"What are you all doing here?" Yuffie asked the Turks. "Did Reeve have you arrested or something?"

"No, Yuffie. They're our guests," Reeve answered before any of the Turks could. "Why don't you come along with us if you're so curious. Yuffie performs a function similar to the Turks. She's the head of our security branch that deals with intelligence gathering," he told Tseng.

Reeve led them to a spacious control center. In its heart was a large oval table. On the walls were many screens showing various places around the world as well as long strings of data. WRO personnel were quietly standing around. Some of them were using the computers. Others were just watching the screens and taking notes.

Tseng figured this was the middle of the base. It was a smart place for Reeve to have led them.

"You've put together quite an organization over the past two years," the Director complimented.

"Thank you, designing is sort of my thing," Reeve replied with a smile.

"You're pretty good at it," Reno told him, giving the room a glance. "We kinda figured you probably had a plan designed for handing out the cure from Sector 5, too."

"Our sources show that you've collected and packaged ample amounts of the water that was discovered there," Tseng added. "We assume you mean to distribute it across the world and eradicate the plague."

Reeve blinked at them, surprised that they would so freely admit to spying on his operations. "You're starting to make me feel a little paranoid, Tseng. Does Shin-Ra have a problem with us handing out the cure?"

"Not at all," Tseng assured. "The President sent us here to offer Shin-Ra's assistance. After all, it is our responsibility to do whatever we can to help rebuild the world. Ending the stigma's threat is a huge step in that direction."

Reeve's smile returned, but he shook his head. "Tell him that we appreciate the offer, but we have an airship already in the air delivering the cure to the Central Continent, and our land fleet will disembark in the morning to cover the east. We have the means to get the cure everywhere. I admit it will take some time, but an end to this thing is within our grasp at last."

"With our help you'll be able to reach more people at a far quicker pace," Tseng implored. "You should know how fast we can be when we feel motivated to get a job done. Every day scores of people are dying. It's an ironic cruelty that the cure exists, and yet those suffering have to wait as the answer to their pain gradually makes its way to them."

Reeve looked uncertain. He knew they were purposely tugging on his heartstrings, but he wasn't sure why Shin-Ra was so keen on being involved.

"We're highly familiar with the world's terrain. There isn't a place on the planet that one of us hasn't been," Rude added.

"C'mon, Reeve," Reno said impatiently. "Let us help. You know if you turn us away we're gonna look like idiots in front of the President."

Entreating green eyes looked up at him. "You don't want us to look like idiots, do you? You were never that type in the past."

The man sighed.

"I suppose a few extra hands and your flight expertise couldn't hurt," Reeve admitted. "Very well, we'll give this a try," he told Tseng.

With that settled, he gestured for the Turks and Yuffie to follow him over to the large oval table in the middle of the WRO's command center.

"Begin in Wutai," Reeve said, pressing a few commands into the table's touch screen. A holo map shimmered into existence above the table. The transparent projection showed the world with markers pinpointing every village, landmark, and populated area that was known to exist.

"Why start all the way out there?" Reno asked.

"You see the places in red?" Reeve swept a hand over the map. "Those are the spots that we've identified as the hardest hit by Geostigma in terms of total deaths and numbers of known infected."

Not just the village of Wutai, but the entire Western Continent glowed and pulsated red. Reeve tapped the marker for Wutai and the map zoomed in on the village, showing its geographic layout and a host of data concerning its population. Blinking in red were numbers detailing the total stigma-related deaths that the WRO had learned of and the current number of people infected.

Reeve touched the map again and it returned to a world view of the planet. "As you can see, the whole planet has been devastated, but there are definitely large areas that we should concentrate on first. I'll handle the Eastern Continent and Mideel if you'll take the cure to Wutai."

"I'll inform the President. We can leave today, if you prefer," Tseng said, his dark eyes studying the map.

Reeve looked delighted. "That would be excellent. I want us to move as fast as possible in case this miracle we've been handed has an expiration date. Oh, and Yuffie will be going with you. We can't really call it a joint mission if someone from the WRO isn't present."

"Taking the cure home is definitely worth getting airsick," Yuffie said with a smile.

Tseng glanced at the ninja girl and nodded. She was probably being sent to keep an eye on them, but Tseng couldn't think of a valid reason to argue against her company. The girl would just have to go with them. It might help them in Wutai to have her with them, after all.

"We've also received urgent requests from the leaders of Bone Village and Icicle Inn for assistance," Reeve went on. "These areas are a little more isolated from the world, so you can imagine their hardship in reaching the cure on their own."

"So you want us to head north after Wutai?" Reno asked, and Reeve nodded.

Tseng moved past Reeve and tapped the Northern Continent, causing the map to zoom in on it. He drew their attention to the a dozen or so tiny red areas that dotted the region. "After we wrap up operations in Icicle Inn, Reno and Elena can use the helicopter to access all of these outposts around the Northern Crater," he suggested.

"I suppose it would be best to go ahead and reach them while you're in the vicinity," Reeve agreed.

Tseng shared a split second glance with Reno. This would help his second-in-command and Elena complete their mission to revisit the Northern Crater without inviting the WRO's scrutiny.

"Well what about the rest of us?" Yuffie frowned at the map. "I don't want to just sit around some inn and freeze while we wait on them to get back with the helicopter and I definitely don't wanna go mucking around in those icy places with them, either."

"Cid should be in the neighborhood around then," Reeve assured her. "He's tackling the Central Continent right now with the rest of his crew. I'll tell him to pick the rest of you up in the Shera and you three can help him cover other remote areas," Reeve said.

Tseng, Rude, and Yuffie nodded.

Reeve tapped the touch screen on the table, dismissing the map. "I'll have your helicopter loaded and ready to go within the hour."


	4. Turtle's Paradise

**Disclaimer: **I do not own anything.

**Part 4: Turtle's Paradise**

**Miarath: **Thank you for being kind enough to review.

* * *

"Looks like they've done a lot to rebuild since Meteorfall," Reno noted, leaning forward to get a better view of the village below as Rude landed the helicopter.

He knew the Lifestream had done serious damage to Wutai two years previous, but looking at the village he saw many familiar structures still intact. The pagoda where the country's leader lived still stood as well as many of the smaller buildings. He sought out the Turtle's Paradise Pub and was relieved to find the only bar on the entire continent still standing, too.

"I heard they had to rebuild that river that cuts through the village. Looks like they did a thorough job," Rude said.

Reno gazed down at the crooked, glistening water and the red painted bridges that arched over it, connecting the east and west sides of Wutai.

Minutes later the helicopter landed and Yuffie leapt out onto the green grass.

"I'm home!" she called. She took in a deep breath, relishing the scent of the ocean's breeze compounded with the smell of something delicious being cooked on an open pit. It was probably someone making their dinner down at the shoreline.

Tseng and Elena stepped off after her, the latter Turk shooting Yuffie a withering glare. Twice during the flight she'd caught the ninja making a grab at her Materia.

Yuffie spun around and faced them. "What's the hold up? Let's go! Last time I was here a bunch of kids disappeared. I wanna go see if they've been found yet."

"You should make a list if there's any still missing while we're here," Tseng suggested. "Reeve might be able to help you relocate them."

Yuffie nodded as Reno and Rude joined them. Both Turks wore backpacks containing parceled amounts of the curative water. Rude handed off two more of the backpacks to his fellow Turks and Reno tossed one to Yuffie.

"All right!" Yuffie said, stepping in the middle of them after slipping her backpack on. "This is the game plan, Turks. First we—"

"Reno and Rude cover the west and Elena and I will take the east," Tseng said. The Turks nodded. "Yuffie, go explain to your father why Shin-Ra and the WRO are here."

"Hey, now wait a second! I'm not here just to announce your presence," she insisted, hands on her hips. "I'm the one in charge of this mission! Reeve told me to keep both eyes on all of ya and I'm not gonna let him down!"

"Calm down before your head explodes," Reno said. "You see that helicopter? Whose name is on the side of it? I don't think W.R.O. has that many letters."

"But Reeve sent me," Yuffie pointed out.

"Yeah, well he's not our boss either," Reno replied. "You're number five in this little hierarchy as far as I'm concerned, short stuff. That puts you on the bottom."

"Princess Yuffie!" a voice called. A pair of Wutai warriors were running from the front gates to the helicopter. Their brown eyes scanned the Turks, recognizing them immediately for what they were because of the dark uniforms they wore.

One warrior's gaze jumped from the helicopter and back to Yuffie. "What is this about, Princess?"

"I think she just went to number one," Rude muttered, and Reno scowled.

"Relax, guys," the ninja assured, motioning for the warriors to lower their swords. "I've been working with the WRO to find a cure for the curse. One drop of this magic water and poof! Anyone under the curse will be healed! We made sure to bring lots of it."

She twirled around to show them her backpack.

"We'd heard of the miracle water, but no one has yet returned that was sent to see if the stories are true," the man said. His eyes passed over the Turks and his gaze hardened. "If you've been working with the WRO, then why did you bring Shin-Ra here?"

"I brought them to steal all of their Materia and offer them as human sacrifices for the Fire Festival next week," Yuffie said.

Reno, Rude, and Elena looked at the ninja with surprise. The EMR was in Reno's hand in seconds.

Tseng scoffed. "Wutai's Fire Festival is always held in December."

The Turks relaxed, and Reno glared at Yuffie as he lowered his weapon.

"Awww, I was just having fun," the girl said. "Shin-Ra's here with me. They're helping the WRO pass out the cure."

"Which, by the way, we also helped find," Reno said irritably.

The warriors glanced from him to Yuffie. Confused, one asked, "Why is Shin-Ra helping the WRO?"

"Because it's our responsibility to help in any effort to restore the planet," Tseng answered smoothly. "We will not stay longer than is required to administer the cure."

"All right, you can enter because the Princess vouches for you," the warrior said, "but know that if you make any suspicious moves there will be severe consequences. I'm sure you understand that no one around here cares to see Shin-Ra poking around. You'll be under watch the entire time you're here, so don't do anything that could be misinterpreted as hostile, got it?"

Tseng nodded. The two warriors led them to the village gates and the Turks watched as Yuffie strutted through them. When the Turks tried to cross the threshold, however, they were ordered to stop and turn over their weapons.

Yuffie paused and looked back. She waved her arms and shook her head. "Guys, I said they're with me! Yeesh, we're not here to hurt anybody. You think I'd bring them here if I thought they were gonna start a fight?"

The gate guards reluctantly allowed the Turks to keep their weapons, and Yuffie flashed the Turks a smug smirk which all of them pointedly ignored.

As soon as they entered the village, Reno and Rude headed west to follow Tseng's orders.

"Wait!" Yuffie called after them. "I haven't told my father you're here!"

Tseng and Elena began walking towards the closest house on the east side of the city. The Director paused and looked back at her. "Well then, you better hurry. Reeve would be disappointed if some sort of misunderstanding over our presence here occurred."

With an irritated growl Yuffie turned on her heel and ran towards the pagoda where she was sure to find her father.

* * *

When the Turks strolled into the Turtle's Paradise Pub the bar grew quiet. No one said a word as Reno and Rude crossed the wooden floorboards and headed for the back of the establishment where a giant turtle statue stood. Reno pulled off his backpack and removed a clear container from it. He then climbed up to sit on the edge of the statue's foundation. His partner stood beside him like a bodyguard. The Turk glanced around the room to make sure everyone was paying attention. Satisfied, he held the container up. It was full of a clear liquid.

"Hey, Rude, look what Shin-Ra found," he said, showing the container to his partner. Reno could see everyone in the room leaning and squinting to get a good look at what was in his hand. He heard murmurs and speculations start to cross the room, and then a boy's voice, loud and clear.

"What's that?" the kid asked. He was blond and thin. He didn't look old enough for the beer he was drinking.

"Send someone with the stigma over here and I'll show ya," Reno replied with a smirk.

The boy looked startled. He nervously met the eyes of his buddies and stood up from the table they surrounded. "I got it, but not as bad as my little brother. He ran away though."

"Well, guess there's nothing we can do about him right now," Reno said with a shrug. "But you're another story." He gestured for the boy to come up to him, but the kid didn't move.

Reno sighed and shrugged again. "Okay, but it's your loss. We flew all the way out here to bring you people this cure from Sector 5… Maybe you've heard of it, but it looks like you all don't really want it... And after we brought so much of it, too. I wonder what we should do with it?"

Reno looked to his partner again and grinned. "Hey, Rude, do you think this stuff could work for my allergies?"

"Might as well give it a try," Rude replied.

"Listen here," a woman behind the bar called, and both the Turks and the crowd turned their faces towards her. "You think you're the first ones to ride into town claiming to have a cure? I know people who've lost everything trying to buy so-called miracles from jerks like you. Is Shin-Ra _that_ desperate for money these days?"

Her patrons laughed and the woman shared a wink with a few of them.

"Who said we're charging?" Reno asked, but his voice could barely be heard above the crowd. Several people had stood up and started arguing with those around them about the possibility of a cure. From the snatches Reno caught, most thought it was just too good to be true. They thought the Turks were screwing with them, and he sensed the potential for danger growing as more glares were turned his direction.

"I'll try it," a woman said, catching Reno's eye with a wave of her hand. He hadn't even noticed her walking up to them.

He looked her over. She was slim and covered in bandages. Her hazel eyes looked up at him and Reno could see layers of suffering in them. He understood her suffering even though he'd never experienced it himself. Reno knew all about the black ooze a person with the stigma would vomit, the way it would bubble up and sizzle through their skin… He'd watched the President and all of the residents at the lodge endure it, many until they died.

The woman rolled back her sleeves and showed him her thin arms. They were marred with the stigma's black crawl.

"It started in my forearms. There's a bad patch on my thigh, and it's on my face," she said, embarrassed by the dark smears that covered her cheeks beneath the bandages. She gave the container in his hand a nervous glance.

"Well, with so much already messed up, trying this can't hurt, right?" he asked, and she shook her head. Reno took that as permission enough and poured the liquid on her arms.

Immediately the woman gasped as the stigma was lifted, parting from her flesh in a gentle flow of green, purified energy. She quickly grabbed the container from Reno and dumped the rest of it on her head, groaning in relief as she felt the stigma part from her face. She pulled the bandages away and pawed at her smooth skin.

"It's gone!" she cried, and the crowd surrounded her, checking her over in disbelief.

"_How did Shin-Ra make this?"_

"_I've got to get my mom!"_

"Can I have some?" the boy who'd spoken up earlier asked. He'd picked his way through the crowd, which pressed very close, and waited by Rude.

* * *

"What's with this place and giant snakes?" Elena wondered, walking only a step behind Tseng as they left yet another house. Her eyes glanced across the river and widened at the scene she saw. A huge, excited crowd was gathering around the pub.

While Reno and Rude had apparently devised a way to make the people come to them, Tseng and Elena were quietly going from house to house with the cure for the sake of being thorough. Of course, with the scene going on across the water at Turtle's Paradise, Tseng figured everyone would hear about the cure and seek out a person in black to get some if they really needed it. The pub looked packed, and there were people standing all around it drinking and talking excitedly about what was going on inside.

"I don't think I've ever seen Wutai quite like this," Tseng mused, shaking his head at the pub with a small smile. Next time he'd be clearer in his orders. Deliver the cure. Do not create a scene.

"Did you hear me?" Elena asked as they walked up a set of wooden steps. Her hand skimmed over the red painted handrail.

"It's not a snake," Tseng answered her, still distracted by the noise across the water. "It's the divine god Leviathan."

The god was depicted everywhere, both in banners and in the village's architecture.

Elena hated snakes. At the top of the stairs she glanced at Tseng. "Do you believe in him, Tseng?"

"Who?"

"The god Leviathan," she said, following him up to a wooden door.

He politely knocked. "Of course not. Leviathan's a powerful creature that can be summoned with Materia, but I don't believe it's a god."

"Oh." Elena pulled another container from his backpack.

"Why do you ask?"

Her brown eyes met his and she shrugged a little. "Well, you're from here. You've got a tilak on your forehead like half the men here do… I guess I just figured you might believe in it, too."

"I left here when I was very young and almost immediately joined the Turks," he told her. "Considering Wutai and Shin-Ra's bloody past… I think there's very little of this culture in me. I don't feel home when I'm here. In fact," he hesitated.

"Yeah?"

"Being here drags up memories of the war I'd rather not dwell on," he admitted. "For the majority of my life home has been Shin-Ra HQ in Midgar. This place is just a former battleground. Still, with the stigma removed, I hope this country will find its way to power again. It was a proud nation, years ago."

Elena nodded. She knew that Wutai was a major loss for the Company. It was a possession they did not have the physical means to fight to keep anymore. She doubted the President had any interest in dominating Wutai at the moment anyway.

The door opened and a man greeted them with wary eyes. "Yes?"

"We're here on behalf of the Shin-Ra Company and the World Regenesis Organization," Tseng introduced. "We've been sent to Wutai to distribute a cure for Geostigma that was discovered in Sector 5. Is there anyone in this household suffering from the plague?"

* * *

As night fell the atmosphere in Wutai only seemed to liven. People were in a state of joy and just needed to celebrate, so an impromptu festival sprang up with all of the trappings and food of a real one. The country of Wutai had a festival for one reason or another almost every month of the year, so it took the villagers no time at all to fetch an assortment of decorations and dress the place up for a party. The streets filled up with people and the vendors kept their wares out much later than they usually would.

Reno and Rude walked the streets, surveying them as lanterns on long strings were stretched across the stream and new vendors selling tasty looking food started to form a line near the village gates.

"I know where I'm heading next," Rude said. "Do you see the size of that steak?"

"I think we should come to Wutai more often," Reno agreed, eyes wide.

They crossed a bridge and headed straight for the food, but a display of large Shuriken caught Reno's eye and he paused to look at them. Rude gave the steaks a longing glance but stuck with his partner.

"Hey, Rude, do you think Cissnei got her Shuriken from here? They sell them all over the world but everyone knows they originate in Wutai," Reno said.

Rude shrugged. His eye caught a pair of dark suits walking towards the gates. "The Director and Elena seemed to be finished handing out their share of the cure, too."

Reno spotted them and sighed. Their backpacks looked as empty as his. "Oh well, guess it's time to move on then. Tseng's not gonna wanna hang around and have any fun when there's a mission going on."

"I'm grabbing a steak for the road, though," Rude muttered.

"Yeah, buy me one, too," Reno said, ignoring the look his partner gave him.

* * *

Yuffie met up with them as they left the village. "Bet you all missed me!"

The Turks avoided her eye contact and she scowled. A second passed and she recovered her enthusiasm, bouncing on her heels as they walked back to the helicopter.

"You know we're heroes right now, right? It's such a relief to not have everyone hating me anymore," she said cheerfully.

"What'd they hate you for?" Reno asked.

"They blamed me for the curse being here. Everyone thought I carried it back with me after Meteorfall," she told him. "Anyways, after I dropped off all of my containers at the pagoda I spent all day finding out which kids are still missing. I sent a list to Reeve. Maybe he can put some people out to look for 'em."

"Speaking of kids…" Tseng said as they came upon their helicopter. The Turks and Yuffie watched a small group of young Wutai teens throw rocks at the Shin-Ra emblem on the helicopter's side.

One of the teens, a scruffy looking one, spun around when he heard Tseng's voice. He glared defiantly.

"Shin-Ra will never beat us down again!" he snarled, throwing another rock at the helicopter before hightailing it. His friends were on his heels.

"Well he's got spirit," Reno said, watching them flee. "A few years ago a stunt like that could've gotten him killed."

"Should we, I dunno, go after them?" Elena asked. Living at Healen kept them isolated from those that hated them most of the time, so she was a little shocked.

"Nah, what would be the point of beating up a bunch of dumb kids? Let's get on with the mission," Reno replied.

* * *

After Wutai they flew north to Bone Village, and from there even further north into the icy plains. Clouds of snow drift were kicked up as Reno landed the helicopter on the outskirts of Icicle Inn. The small village was surrounded by pine trees, but Reno could still see the snow-covered wooden houses and the warm glow of candlelight that flickered in their windows.

Outside of the helicopter and bearing reloaded backpacks, the five began marching through the snow towards the village.

"This is unbearable!" Yuffie moaned. "It's so cold! My fingers are freezing!"

"We offered you an extra pair of our gloves," Elena reminded her, trudging fast to keep up with everyone else. She really hated being so short.

"I already got gloves," the ninja said, hugging herself as she hurried alongside Elena.

"Yeah but ours have fingers on them," the female Turk pointed out. "You knew we were coming here. Why didn't you pack some pants and a jacket?"

"Blah, blah, blah. Stop nagging me," Yuffie said, sprinting ahead to walk with Tseng and Rude. Reno had all of them outpaced by a few feet. His red ponytail snapped about in the wind and made him easy to keep track of in the snowfall.

"It's good that we arrived here when we did," Tseng said, and Rude nodded. The Director looked over his shoulder. "Elena, keep up!"

"Yes, sir!" the Turk yelled, pushing harder to stomp through the snow. Her face was flushed red and she was panting when she caught up to them. She didn't comment when they obviously slowed down for her sake.

* * *

They walked through the pine trees, eventually catching up with Reno. He leaned against a tree trunk while he waited on them. His lips were tinged blue and his hair and eyebrows were frosted over, along with his jacket. Tseng figured they all probably looked about the same.

Reno fell into stride with the Director and let Tseng lead them the rest of the way to Icicle Inn. As soon as they entered the snowy streets all of them headed for the closest building. It was some sort of shop. Most importantly, it had a blazing fireplace and was cozy and warm.

Yuffie plunked down beside the fire and sighed in relief, holding her palms close to the flames.

A little girl sat on a tall stool behind the shop counter. She wore a pink fluffy coat and toboggan. She blinked several times at the people in black and the girl sitting on her floor before she recovered and asked, "Would you like to buy some items?"

"Do you have any Materia?" Yuffie asked, looking back at the kid.

"Sorry, we just sell weapons here."

"Does anyone in this building suffer from Geostigma?" Elena asked, her chattering teeth slurring some of her words. "We have a cure for it."

The girl shook her head. "My grandpa was sick with the black stuff, but he died. Now I live with my older brothers."

Elena frowned. "Are your brothers here?"

"Nah, they're out snowboarding or at the bar. They let me handle this cause I'm old enough," she said proudly.

Elena scowled. "You can't even be ten! How irresponsible."

"Did she say there's a bar around here?" Reno asked, shivering but trying not to show it.

"Reno!" Elena turned her scowl on him, but he held his hands up defensively.

"Hey, it'll warm us up," he insisted.

"He's got a point," Rude said.

"Later." Tseng ended the discussion. "Let's check the next place."

"Awww, but that means going outside again," Yuffie griped.

* * *

Nestled just behind the weapon shop was another building. Tseng recognized it immediately.

"What's wrong?' Elena asked him, wondering why they had all paused several feet from the door. Her ears, nose, and cheeks were already beginning to sting again from the cold.

"This is where Professor Hojo found Aerith and her parents," the Director said, looking up at the house. The windows were lit up like all of the other houses, and a fresh snowman was sitting by the door.

"Why don't we split up again to hurry this up?" Reno suggested. He could tell with a glance that Tseng needed a break from questions. "I'll take the girls down that way," he pointed, "and you can take Rude."

Tseng answered with a nod, his dark eyes still on the house where Aerith had been born, and the group split up.

* * *

A skinny dog barked at them from its spot by the door. It was such an old and frail beast that Reno seriously doubted it would harm them. He led the girls past the dog and knocked on the door. It took a few minutes, but eventually they heard a hard thumping noise approaching the door. When it swung open, a child stood on the other side. The stigma covered the center of his face like a bizarre tattoo.

"Can we come in?" Elena asked, rubbing her hands together to show that she was cold.

"Okay," the boy agreed. He limped away from the door, leaving it to the Turks and Yuffie to shut after they stepped into the living room.

"Who's this?" the boy's father asked, sitting by a fire. A blanket was over the man's legs. On his lap slept an orange tabby cat that the man absently pet as he scanned the strangers up and down. "You're Turks, aren't you?"

"That's right," Reno confirmed, and took a seat when the man gestured at a nearby couch. The girls sat on either side of him.

"Except you," the man said, looking Yuffie over again. "What are you doing dressed like that in weather like this?"

"I'm the Great Ninja Yuffie," she said, rubbing her upper arms. "I'm so battle-hardened I don't even feel the cold."

"Right." The man shifted his eyes to Reno again. "You find that one wandering in a frost storm or something?"

Reno grinned. "She's with us as a representative of the WRO."

"The WRO's working with Shin-Ra now, huh?" The man called his son, and the boy remerged from his room, limping to his father's side. "Mind getting them some hot tea?"

The kid went straight to it.

His father watched him put the water to boil and fetch three tiny tea bags as well as three mugs. "He's a great kid. I'd get up and fix it myself, but these legs are covered with the same mess you see on his face. I can't stand more than a minute before they just give out on me."

"That's actually why we're here," Reno said. He opened Elena's backpack and brought out a cure container. "Your village leader requested that we bring the cure that was discovered in Midgar to Icicle Inn since the trip is next to impossible for most of the people here."

Reno handed the container to Elena and she took it to the man.

"Just pour this on your legs and you'll see," she directed. "It'll take the stigma away."

"How's such a thing possible?" the man asked, glancing from her to the container.

"The water's been blessed by the Lifestream," Elena told him. It was her theory at least. "I've seen lots of people healed by it already."

He took a deep breath and called, "Boy! Get over here!"

The kid left the hot tea to steep in their mugs on the stove and hurried over. The man unscrewed the lid and poured a small portion of the water on his son. The effect was instantaneous. The curse was lifted. Laughing, the father grabbed his son up and hauled the kid into his lap. He planted kisses all over the boy's face.

"Now use the rest on yourself," Elena said, smiling as the boy fought to be put back down.

* * *

Half an hour later the Turks and Yuffie, now full of warm tea, were escorted to the door by the boy. The tabby cat followed close on his heels.

"Thanks for your help," he told them, smiling shyly at Elena. "You saved us."

"Hey, you're still limping," Yuffie noticed.

"Yeah," the boy said, looking down at this leg. "I broke it a few years ago snowboarding and it just healed funny. Anyways, thanks again! Make sure you go to everyone's house!"

At another snug little house they found a girl wearing a thick coat with a hood that hid most of her face. She sat on the front steps of her house and stared at her snowshoe-covered feet.

"What's wrong?" Elena asked, noticing right away that the girl was infected. Some of the black ooze was dried on her chin.

"My grandmother's dying," the child answered. "If she dies, I'll just have Dad left."

Elena armed herself with another container and crouched beside the child. "Maybe we can help. First though, can I give you something?"

Big green eyes looked up at her and Elena and the others had to restrain themselves from letting the horror show on their faces. The girl's upturned face was blackened and her left cheek oozed with the disease. It dripped down onto her coat.

Elena quickly opened the container and showered the girl with the entirety of it. The child squeaked in surprise and shock, and almost scrambled away, but the warmth that spread over her body made her pause. The stigma evaporated from her like a dead skin being lifted, and she quickly shrugged out of her coat so she could see her arms. Her small hands touched her face.

"You fixed me!" the girl cried, falling into the Turk's arms. She hugged Elena for all she was worth. Then she grabbed her hand. "C'mon! You have to fix Grandmother, too!"

Elena was hauled into the house and Reno and Yuffie followed. They found the grandmother sitting in a rocking chair. The girl released her hold on Elena and ran to the old woman.

"Look! Look! They cured me!" The girl spun around with her arms flung out. She raced back to Elena when her grandmother failed to respond. "Can I have a bottle of the cure, please?"

Reno quickly pulled one out and tossed it to Elena, who handed the cure to the child. They watched her perform the miracle on her grandmother. The stigma dissipated, and the old woman groaned.

"Are you okay, Grandmother?" the child asked.

"Yes. I'm cured, too. Go get your father," the elder commanded, and the girl ran to fetch him. She turned her wrinkled face towards the Turks and Yuffie. "Well, what are you brats waiting for? A _thank you_?"

"No, Ma'am," Elena said, startled by the venom in the old woman's tone.

"Good," the grandmother snapped. "Cause you won't be getting' one. You're from Shin-Ra. I can tell by the outfits."

"We are," Reno confirmed. His green eyes matched her glare as he came to stand by Elena.

"Well, _Shin-Ra_, where were you last year when my daughter was dying from this mess you made? She got so delirious from the pain that one night she just walked out the door and froze to death," the old woman demanded. "Where were you then with your little black suits and magic cures? How about last month when that girl's twin sister passed away? Huh?"

Elena could hear Reno's teeth grinding and she knew the EMR was only a flick of the wrist away, old woman or not. She took him by the arm and pulled him towards the door as Yuffie stared at the old lady in shock.

"Come on, Reno," Elena urged. "There are so many others who need the cure. Don't let some old lady get the best of you. She's just a bitter old bitch."

That seemed to do the trick. His furious expression melted into an angry scowl. "You got that right," he said, taking a deep huff of air to calm himself. He then quickly exited the house with Elena on his heels.

Yuffie lingered behind.

"_What?"_ the old woman asked. "Can't you take a hint like the other two? You're not wanted here!"

"You're not worth the water we wasted on you," the girl hissed, an angry tear slipping down her cheek. She fled the house to catch up with the Turks, too afraid to look back at the blind hatred that sat in the rocking chair.

* * *

Several houses and businesses later, the group came together again. Their backpacks were empty and their ears, noses, and toes were absolutely frozen.

"I think we're done here," Tseng said. Even his calm façade couldn't hide the relief he felt at his own words.

"If you're chilled there's a bar in the basement of that inn, there," a bystander said. He'd been watching the curious little group ever since they'd shown up at Icicle Inn. All five of them looked ready to freeze. "Go let some spirits warm you up. It's where I spend most of my time these days."

"There's no taking off in this visibility," Reno told Tseng. He'd already been to the bar once with Yuffie and Elena earlier when they were still handing out the cure. Going back for a second round and a warm bed to sleep in definitely sounded like a good plan.

Tseng sighed, knowing it was the safest thing to do. He just dreaded giving his second-in-command such extended access to a bar while they were in the middle of a mission. He nodded and reluctantly led the group to the inn and, once inside, was met with an extremely attractive woman. She stood behind the counter with big blue eyes and a mop of silky blonde hair.

"Well hello, handsome!" the innkeeper greeted with a big smile. "Please tell me you need a place to sleep because I got just the room for _you_—Mine!"

Tseng's eyes widened. A beat passed and he heard Reno begin to snicker. Another beat and Yuffie was snickering, too.

"I love a man in a suit," the gorgeous woman informed him. She leaned on the counter to draw attention to her overabundance of cleavage. Two perfect breasts bulged from the top of her fur-trimmed top.

"We'd like a place to stay," Elena said, stepping around the Director and glaring at the woman with icy brown eyes. "Got enough room for all of us in your room or would you rather give us another place to sleep?"

The innkeeper leaned back with a pout. "Oh, you've got a girlfriend."

Tseng pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes as Elena blushed.

"Do you have a room for us or not?" Tseng asked calmly.

"Sure. It sleeps six."

"We'll take it!" Yuffie shivered in anticipation of being under some warm covers. "Go ahead, Tseng. Give her money! I'm not about to sleep on that darn helicopter."

"It's 100 gil a night," the innkeeper told them. She smiled at Tseng conspiratorially and added, "But I'll make it free for a kiss. How about it, love?"

"Yeah, how 'bout it?" Reno echoed, grinning ear to ear and looking at Rude to make sure his partner was enjoying this as much as he was.

Tseng reached into his pocket and set down 300 gil. "One night is all we'll need," he said, heading for the stairs without even waiting for her to hand over a key.

Reno and Yuffie's laughter followed him all the way up.

Still grinning, Reno walked up to the counter and held his palm out for the key. She gave it to him, but was sure to drag her fingers across the length of his hand as their eyes met.

"I was so distracted by talk, dark, and handsome that I didn't even see _you_," she said, leering at him and licking her lips. "What a cute little thing you are, and I just love your hair!"

Unable to contain herself, Yuffie leaned over and held her stomach. She laughed so hard tears stung her eyes. "This is so great!" the ninja cackled.

Elena felt her face flush again. "Come on, Reno," she said, grabbing his arm and yanking him towards the stairs. "Let's go to the bar!"

"Since when were you planning on joining us?" the redhead asked, handing over the key to their room.

"I'm not! I'm just making sure she doesn't hit on Rude next," Elena growled as they went downstairs to the basement bar. "A woman that forward must have something wrong with her. She's probably got a disease from being so promiscuous."

"Not all women are as high strung as you. Some just like to have fun," Reno said as she let go of him. He gave her a vicious grin. "Still, you better hurry before she corners the Director outside of our room. He can't get in without that key!"

Elena smacked him on the arm, and then smacked Rude's, too.

"Don't let her sweet talk you into doing something stupid!" the Turk warned, and then headed back for the stairs. After she was gone the other two Turks went to the bar and sat down. Two drinks later Reno caught Rude snickering.

"What are you laughing about?" he asked his partner.

Those shaded eyes looked over. "Little cute thing… ha ha…"

Reno smirked and ordered another drink. "I'm sure you'll tell the Director all about that, huh?"

Rude kicked back another shot and set his tiny glass down. "You know it."

* * *

The next morning they regrouped in the inn's lobby, careful to avoid conversation or eye contact with the innkeeper.

"Our next stop is Modeoheim," Tseng told the girls as they finally emerged from the stairs.

"But I thought that place was abandoned?" Elena said.

"Some guys at the bar last night didn't seem to think so," Reno replied. "They think some people tried to escape the stigma by isolating themselves there, so it's worth checking out. "

"Well, time to go freeze our tails off in Modeoheim," Yuffie muttered. She shivered in anticipation of the bitter winds assaulting her skin again.

"Not us," Reno said. "This is where we part ways. Elena and I are gonna head towards the Northern Crater and check out the outposts there."

"But what about us? We'll be stranded out here and it's freezing," Yuffie said. "Can't we just go with you?"

"Cid's picking us up in the Shera," Tseng told her. "This has always been the plan. Didn't you pay any attention when Reeve was telling you?"

Yuffie waved off the notion with a flick of her wrist. "Oh please, Reeve knows I only listen to the first five minutes of anything he says."

* * *

Once the helicopter was unearthed from its blanket of snow and warmed up, Reno handed a few backpacks of the cure to Rude.

"Don't take any foolish risks," Tseng told his second-in-command when Yuffie was out of earshot. "Just locate what you can of Jenova and get out. If you find anything take it straight back to the President."

Reno gave him a mocking salute. "You got it. See you soon."

He climbed into the pilot's seat as Elena took the seat beside him, and minutes later they lifted off.


	5. See the Mission Through

**Disclaimer: **I do not own anything. Oh, and the rating had to go up for violence.

**Part 5: See the Mission Through**

**Miarath: **This fandom isn't a good fit it seems, but I'll finish this story before I go back to my familiar fandom stomping grounds. :)

* * *

The Northern Crater was a blistering cold and miserable place. The winds were treacherous, but Reno landed them safely on a dark bed of uneven stone as close to the mouth of the crater as he dared. Gusts of misty air whipped around the helicopter as it settled on the rocky ground. The air was full of snow flurries that attacked the exposed parts of his skin with all the sharpness of tiny knives.

Reno helped Elena join him on the ground and handed her the headset. "You've done this before," he explained, and she nodded.

Truth be told he wanted Elena to focus on finding Jenova while he focused on keeping them safe from any surprise attacks. There were creatures lurking in the crater that could kill with one swipe. The Turks needed to do this quickly and silently. In a perfect scenario they wouldn't even be noticed by the crater's dangerous inhabitants.

"We have to keep as quiet as possible," Elena told him as she shrugged into a backpack that containing various items.

Reno slipped his own bag's straps over his shoulders and nodded. He held his EMR as he followed Elena towards the gaping maw of the crater. She moved slowly, already wearing the headset as it allowed her to see much better in the snow cover and crater's darkness. She held her gun and led her partner to the place where she'd slid down with Tseng on her last trip to the awful place.

Reno took a long length of rope from her backpack and tied it around an outcropping of stone growing near the crater's edge. He pulled on it hard to make sure it would stay, and then the Turks held the rope as they eased their way down. It didn't take long for them to lose their footing, and the Turks went sliding down the steep incline until they reached a ledge that jutted out from the crater's wall.

"Well that was fun," Reno said, dusting himself off and glancing around at the rock formations that surrounded them. "Funny, I expected it to be a lot darker down here."

Elena laughed nervously. "Look down and you'll see where the light's coming from. Don't stand too close to the edge, though."

Reno leaned to see what she was talking about. His green eyes widened. "Now that's a drop!" he said, pulling back.

Beneath them was a chasm both hundreds of feet wide and deep. It spiraled down, deeper and deeper, and at the bottom a pool of Lifestream pulsated a sinister green. The eerie light allowed them to see, but it was a creepy, flickering light that made the shadows jump.

"We gotta go all the way down there?" Reno asked.

"Tseng and I didn't have to go that far to find a piece," Elena said, shaking her head. "It was reported that the Lifestream literally burst from this place two years ago, like an eruption. I think it deposited pieces of the alien on its way up, or at least spread them around."

A deep growl reverberated through the stone. Elena crouched beside the wall and Reno quickly followed her example.

"What is that?" Reno whispered. He could see the black outline of a shape sniffing along a ledge below and to their right. It was massive, easily bigger than their helicopter. A flash of green light from the Lifestream illuminated the creature and he saw that it had giant wings, claws, and a long tail.

"It's a Dark Dragon," Elena whispered back. "There are a lot of them near the top of the crater. They pack a pretty mean punch, but if it comes down to it we could defeat one."

"Yeah but it'd probably create enough racket to bring more of his buddies down on us," Reno said, keeping his voice low. He quietly unzipped Elena's backpack and pulled out a flashlight. He took the power cells and bulb out of it before tossing its black casing towards the dragon.

The flashlight went sailing past it, hitting another ledge and clattering as it fell out of sight. The dragon made a hideous noise and smoke curled from its nose. The monster's claws crunched through the crater's stone as it leapt off its ledge and pursued the falling object.

"We're actually kind of lucky," Elena said, standing up. "Tseng says the Lifestream killed a lot of the things that used to live here. It could be worse."

"Sure, but let's try not to discover what the Lifestream left behind," Reno said, leaning to watch the dragon lumber away.

* * *

Hours later of climbing and hiding paid off when Elena finally picked up on something promising with the headset. The Turks had crept their way down into a maze of little ledges and natural staircases. It was here that she saw with the infrared something pink with red glowing edges.

Both Turks knelt beside it, Reno using a field kit from his backpack to test the lump of warm, stringy flesh's bio-signature against a sample of Jenova's DNA.

"It's gooey and freaky and definitely her," he confirmed minutes later. He prodded the slippery blue-tinged flesh and the skin split, showing a strange membrane beneath.

"That's nasty," Elena said. She pawed at her throat. "I think I'm going to throw up."

Reno agreed as he used a scoop to transfer the mess into a black containment box. "Now let's get out of here. Being this close to her gives me the creeps and being _here_ makes it worse."

Elena held still as her partner stuffed the box securely into her backpack and zipped it in, but she frowned as she watched Reno pack the field kit and other tools away.

"Maybe…" she hesitated. She thought about what was on her mind, bit her lip, and decided she trusted him enough to say it.

"Maybe we shouldn't take it back. Maybe we should destroy it and say we couldn't find anything," Elena suggested.

Reno paused in the middle of shoving the scoop deep into his bag. His shocked green eyes turned up to meet her gaze. "You mean... lie to the President?"

Elena's brow creased, and he could see something haunting in her expression. "I don't want to lie to him, it's just—what are his intentions? Before I understood that we were locating Jenova's remains to help find a cure for Geostigma, but now… This is dangerous, what we're doing. It could all start again."

She gave the crater an anxious brown-eyed glance, and he knew she was half-expecting Kadaj to crawl up from the ground again.

Reno gave her a casual smile. "If other executives are still out there, they might come looking, too, if they haven't already. There are probably all kinds of people in the world that would be interested in using Jenova's cells for, well, whatever, if they know about them. The way I see it, this thing is property of Shin-Ra. It's our job to keep it contained. Maybe he just wants us to hide the thing."

"You're right." Elena said, nodding and sighing. "Now I feel ashamed for not trusting the President, for questioning him."

"Don't be," Reno assured. "He doesn't want mindless idiots working for him—that was his old man's style of leadership and look where it got _him_."

Elena grinned. "And Heidegger."

Reno nodded. He finished packing up their stuff and stood up, holding out a hand to her. "Let's get out of here before our luck runs out, yo."

She agreed and took his hand.

* * *

Reno phoned Tseng and the President once they were in the helicopter and told them of their success. He was ordered to bring the box back to the lodge right away, so the Turks set off, flying away from the Northern Crater. There was a problem, however. When they'd returned from the crater, Reno had discovered the helicopter had far less fuel in it than he remembered. They would have to stop and refuel if they wanted to make it home.

The only fuel station within their reach was operated by the WRO. While they were there, it was further discovered that the helicopter held hidden damage within its engine.

They were given two options by the WRO personnel in charge: wait around until the chopper could be fixed or borrow one of the WRO's vehicles. Reno called Tseng for direction, and was told that it was too risky to hang around the WRO with Jenova's remains, so the redhead graciously accepted the offer to borrow a motorcycle from the WRO with the promise to return it once Shin-Ra's helicopter was repaired.

* * *

They loaded up what equipment they could in their backpacks and the Turks embarked on the long road trip through the wasteland. Hours later, after bypassing Midgar and the WRO's base entirely, they entered the countryside and the last long stretch on their way to the lodge.

Ahead the road was blocked by a pile of tree trunks. It was high enough that they could climb over it, but getting the bike to cross the barrier was out of the question. The surrounding woods were too clustered and uneven for any sort of off-road travel. The land on either side of the road dropped off so severely that the bike would probably flip anyway. The Turks were at a dead end.

"Well, hello…" Reno slowed the motorcycle to a crawl and put it in park, flicking off the ignition. "Looks like somebody knew we'd be coming this way."

Elena swallowed, a little nervous. "What should we do? The PHS can't get a signal out here, and we're miles from any villages I know of."

Reno turned enough in the seat that he could look back at her. "Well, we could turn around and find another way, but I have a feeling whoever blocked our path probably expected us to try that."

He stilled suddenly, his green eyes flicking to focus on something past Elena's head.

"What?" she mouthed. She felt self-conscious and could feel the hairs on her neck.

Reno kept his eyes trained on something that moved through the woods. "A green-haired woman," he told her. "She was at the tree-line and slipped away as soon as I noticed her."

"Paige? Do you think she's alone out here? She must have a vehicle, too."

"I doubt she's alone, but she's obviously up to something. There's no way this is a coincidence. I mean, first our helicopter has issues and now the road's blocked. I guess I should've seen somethin' coming," Reno said.

He lost track of the woman and turned his eyes back to Elena's. "We're sitting ducks right now. We gotta get under the cover of the woods."

Elena nodded. Now all the hairs on her arms were standing up, too. She had the uncomfortable feeling of being watched, and her sense that they were in danger just kept growing by the minute. "Should we try and catch Paige?"

Reno shook his head. "Nah, it's not part of our mission. We gotta get that thing in your backpack back to the lodge," he said. "When I say go, I want you to follow me. Just run as fast as you can and don't look back. I'm gonna run for those cliffs. Up there maybe we can get a signal and call Tseng to come get us. Last I talked to him, Rude and he were already back at Healen."

Elena gave a small nod. She absently touched her gun, making sure it was there.

"Ready?" Reno asked. "Go!"

He sprung off the bike and ran straight up the road in the direction of the cliffs. Near the edge of the road he glanced back to make sure Elena was behind him. She was, but she couldn't run nearly as fast. Gunfire started chasing her. He could see it ripping up the ground just behind her feet. Her panicked eyes met his as a bullet caught her and she tripped, falling down on the edge of the road.

"Elena!" Reno stumbled to a stop. He'd been seconds from jumping off the road and heading into the tree cover. He ran back to his fallen friend and kneeled beside her. The gunfire had ceased, but Reno could hear voices yelling and lots of feet running towards the Turks' position.

Elena was on her knees, leaning over and holding her side. Blood was on her fingers as they pressed against a wound. She looked up at him with tears in her eyes. "I'm sorry!"

Reno saw several people dressed in black and leveling rifles at them approaching. They were quickly walking up the road to the Turk's left. He looked right and saw Paige climbing up onto the road much closer to them. She wore a huge satisfied smile.

Reno met Elena's eyes again. He pushed his backpack into her hands and then quickly gave his Materia to her as well. "I'm gonna try and draw them away. Cure yourself and head for the cliffs. Call Tseng."

He flicked his wrist and brought the EMR up as he stood. His sights were on Paige. His glare was murderous.

"Reno, wait!" Elena tried to get up, but the pain in her side twisted and she was on her knees again.

Reno yelled as he ran at the woman, his EMR raised as if he were about to bash her skull in with it. Paige's eyes widened and she took off for the woods, Reno flying down the steep side of the road and into the trees after her.

Elena could only watch them go. She crouched further down, leaning over his backpack as a rush of people raced past her on both sides. The men were all dressed in black suits and carried big guns. They seemed panicked. Not a single one of them stopped to secure Elena. They were too focused on saving Paige from Reno, or perhaps they assumed she was down for the count and they could return for her later.

When they were gone, Elena hastily used Reno's Cure Materia to heal herself. She tucked the small globe away, along with the Fire one he'd handed her. She checked his backpack, finding only basic equipment in it. Jenova and the headset were already in her bag. She stood on shaky feet looked to the cliffs rising above the forest.

She glanced at the motorcycle and decided to leave it in case Reno doubled back. If he saw it he'd realize she'd followed his orders and gone to call Tseng. Plus he might need it to get away from all those people pursuing him. She left his bag by the bike as well. Then Elena slipped off the road and started running for the cliffs.

* * *

He slowed to a quick walk and listened as the many feet slushing through the leafy forest floor slowed to match his pace. His pursuers were fanning out. They were forming a line to comb the woods and find him. He hadn't heard any gunshots or cries echoing through the trees, so he told himself that surely Elena was all right.

He felt eyes watching him. Big blue eyes, it turned out. It was funny to him, but Reno thought her eyes looked a lot like Cloud's. They had that same endless blue quality about them.

Reno was thinking about the owner of those eyes when he saw Paige duck behind a tree and the tail of her green hair whipping as it followed her.

He flicked the EMR's setting to what he affectionately called _break._ At this level, the stun was powerful enough to bring a guy as big as Rude down. For someone as small as Paige, it would probably knock her straight into unconsciousness. Reno hoped that to be the case as he stalked under the trees, listening for her as she scurried away from him. He scanned everywhere for a shadow that didn't belong until he found it and stopped. She was hunched behind a tree with long willowy branches that completely hid her body. From the tilt of her shadow, however, Reno could see that she held a gun with both hands.

He listened, but didn't hear anyone around them. The woods were quiet except for the sounds of birds and the wind rustling the highest treetops.

"Yo, Paige," Reno called to the hidden woman.

The shadow straightened and Paige tentatively stepped out from behind her shielding tree, revealing herself to the Turk. She blinked her always wide, always endlessly blue eyes at him. Her hair was fuzzy from the humidity. Instead of the quaint secretarial dress he was used to seeing her in, Paige wore a uniform not very different from the Turks. Her black jacket buttoned up rather than zipped, but otherwise the outfit was identical to what stood as standard issue. Anyone on the planet who saw her would've assumed she was a Turk if they didn't know better.

Reno gave her an amused smirk. "What are you doing skulking about here? I never pictured you as an outdoors girl."

"I heard the office is closed until further notice," Paige answered flippantly. She held her laser pistol with both hands and kept it aimed at the Turk.

"I guess that's one way to think of it." Reno gestured at her clothes with his EMR. "What's with this?"

"I've been promoted," the woman said. Her gaze shifted down to the Turk's chest and then back to his face. There was a smug glint to her eyes. How many times had Reno seen that particular look on her face? It always meant that her boss, Scarlet, was in the next office about to pounce on someone and verbally rip them apart.

"You should lower your weapon, Reno," Paige warned.

Reno glanced down and saw four red dots quavering over his heart. A fifth one was probably dancing on his forehead. Apparently his pursuers had caught up and surrounded him, which was just fine as long as Elena got away. Still, Reno turned a green-eyed glared up at Paige and lifted his arms wide in a semblance of surrender, but he did not release the tight grip he had on his EMR.

"So, you were out here fishing. Is that all?" the Turk asked, letting a little of his irritation slip into his voice. He accepted it, but he didn't like being caught even if it meant saving the mission and Elena. He could hear the rustle of leaves as people, probably the ones ready to snipe him to pieces, moved in closer, tightening the net he'd strolled into.

Paige's smile evolved into a toothy grin and Reno saw the crooked, yellow teeth that hid behind her lips. That much about her hadn't changed from his memories. Paige's facial features were angelic. On the surface she was a beautiful girl until she flashed that ugly set of discolored, misshapen porcelain. Reno swore she enjoyed shocking people with them. Years ago when he'd first met her in Scarlet's office, she had flung that grin at him like a weapon when he'd least expected it and then laughed at his wide-eyed reaction.

"My orders were to go catch a Turk. It was easier than I thought it'd be," Paige bragged. "You have one more chance to drop that weapon, Reno. Otherwise, prepare to have a hole in your arm in the next ten seconds."

Others, dressed in dark suits similar to the one Reno wore, but identical to Paige's, stepped out from the trees. There were six that he could see. Two were behind him, but he'd heard them. All of their guns rested on their shoulders and were aimed at various important organs that Reno required to stay alive.

He was outnumbered and alone. Getting his arm shot up wouldn't help him later, so with much displeasure, Reno scowled and let the EMR go. It hung from its wristlet like a pendulum.

"Take it off and throw it on the ground," Paige ordered, lifting her weapon to add further threat to her request. "Now!"

"All right… All right… No need to get trigger happy…" Reno kept his movements slow and obvious. He wasn't going to give her a reason to shoot him dead in the woods. He wasn't going to let himself get killed before Elena had a chance to get as far away as possible. Instead of throwing his weapon, however, he reverently set it on the ground, and then carefully backed away from it. His EMR wasn't some piece of trash after all.

"Don't move again," Paige warned. Glancing from him to the weapon, she decided it was best to put more distance between the two.

She walked cautiously forward, her gun never wavering in its direction at the disarmed Turk. Paige wasn't an idiot. She knew the Turk's EMR was just a tool. The real weapon was Reno, and his calm surrender made her uncertain. She knelt by his discarded weapon, studied it, and freed a hand to flip off its power. Warily, the assistant stood again with the EMR in her hand.

She glanced around. Together, her comrades and she had formed a ring around the Turk. There was no where he could hope to go. She smiled. He was hers.

"Teal, what about the other one? I can't ever remember her name. The blonde girl?" Paige asked a man close to her. He wore blue shades and was half bald such was the recession of his brown hairline. What was left of his hair was gelled back across his scalp.

"She slipped us. Everyone followed this guy the moment he started tailing you, Ma'am," Teal reported. "He took off so fast we figured he was up to something or he was gonna run you down. When we realized no one checked the girl we sent Waltz. No one can raise him on his PHS. If we look we'll probably find his body. The bike is still there, but the Turk is off the map. Sorry, Ma'am, we thought she was down."

Reno smirked. He felt a little swell of pride for Elena. She'd really become a pro, just like she'd set out to do. "You guys might dress like us but you sure don't think the way we do. I'd check the trees if you want to find that guy you're talking about. _Real_ Turks are taught to string bodies up high if they can't be submerged. It's funny how people never think to look up."

"No one asked you," Paige told Reno. She returned her attention to Teal. "Forget Waltz and the girl. If she's foolish enough to follow us, well, I guess we'll have our own body to string up. We only need one of them according to orders. Let her come after us."

"Don't count on it," Reno said. "She's probably over there." He pointed one of his already lifted arms towards the cliffs that loomed above the trees to their west. At his sudden movement all of the guns shifted in surprise. A shot was fired, but the gunman jerked his weapon and the bullet missed the Turk _and_ the gunman's comrades by sheer luck.

Paige's big blue eyes got even bigger. "Idiots! Hold your fire!"

"You guys sure are jumpy," Reno commented with a smirk. During the distraction he'd dropped his phone and kicked it away into the brush. Now they were all looking at him again, so he made a point to glance around at all of them. There were eight and nine if he counted Paige. Of course, there could be more in the forest.

"Stop moving! Are you trying to get killed?" Paige snapped. She watched the Turk sigh and half-heartedly lift his arms again in surrender.

Was he trying to trick her into killing him? He probably was. The conniving little shit. Well he wasn't going to get away with it. The assistant took a mighty breath and tried to get a grip on her emotions. It felt like her control over the situation could be toppled at any instance. The more he moved, the more he said things, the more stressed Paige felt.

"I'm just saying. She's probably gone to higher ground. I wouldn't waste time going up there and lookin' for her, though." Reno advised.

"Be quiet" Paige commanded. "I'm trying to think."

She knew it was useless. The Turk had found a crack in her armor and he wasn't going to stop picking at it.

"Are you sure you want to keep standing around?" Reno asked, looking far too relaxed for her liking. "If my partner's on the move, then the numbers are gonna shift in my favor before you know it. But hey, it's okay, I understand this is probably your first kidnapping, right?"

Paige glanced at the cliffs. He was right. That little bitch might be planning an ambush, calling in reinforcements, or five seconds from sniping half their heads off. Paige felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up at the thought, but then another thought jumped to the forefront of her mind.

Several times the Turks were reported to be seen checking on a black box that they kept in their backpacks. Where was the box? It wasn't with Reno. He wasn't even wearing a backpack. If it wasn't with him then he'd left it with the girl.

She glared at him as the realization washed over her like a cold shower. The Turk had tricked them. Something important had been in that box. Her boss was going to be angry. Even with the Turk's capture, Paige had possibly missed a much bigger prize.

"Yout little bitch," she hissed, and she could see in his eyes, his _condescending_ eyes, that he knew that she'd finally caught up with his game.

"That's pretty rude language for a secretary." Reno grinned.

"You're just stalling!" Paige exclaimed, her face flushing. She looked at Teal and all the other men standing around. They should have been chasing the girl!

"What's wrong?" Teal asked his director.

"He's played us. He left that woman with the box and tricked all of you into following him to protect me. Don't you see? If he doesn't have the box, the girl must! It was in a backpack! Look at him! Do you see him wearing a backpack!?" Paige railed. She aimed her laser pistol at the Turk again and fired.

Reno scrambled painfully onto his knees and tried to blink away the hot tears that blinded him. He didn't even recall falling down. His hands hovered over the bright red patch that sprawled across his right thigh. He knew he couldn't touch it. The edges of it frightened him the most. They were black. Black meant tissue death. She'd given him a terrible burn that needed Materia put to it immediately, but he'd left his with Elena.

Reno clamped his teeth together and clutched his thigh, keeping his hands on either side of the wound. He ducked his head and tried to overcome both the pain and the way his stomach roiled from it.

Paige liked his suffering. It was stress relieving. Her toothy grin returned as she slid her gun into its holster at her side. Feeling bold with so many hired guns at her call, the secretary switched on the EMR and strolled up to her kneeling prisoner.

"I've never used one of these before, but it seems simple enough," Paige said, regarding the EMR's settings. It looked to be set somewhere in the middle. She had no idea what that would do, so she slid it a little lower, to what she figured must be stun. She waved the metal rod around a bit, like it was a magic wand. The leather padding on its grip made it easy to hold onto.

A pained faced looked up at her. Green eyes widened. "H-Hey, you sure you want to play with that?"

She liked the distress on his face. "I'm not stupid, Reno. I know one little bite to your leg isn't going to keep you down long."

"You don't need to do it," he said, breathing hard and beseeching her eyes.

She flashed her yellow smile at him. "You can beg me not to."

His eyes were absolutely venomous. "With a mouth like yours, I'm sure you're used to men begging to get away from you."

Reno's face whipped to the side as his EMR was smashed against it. He saw and heard sparks. The jolt exploded across the bones in his face and he was sure his jaw, his nose, and all of his teeth were shattered. He collapsed in an unconscious heap, sprawled on the ground at her feet.

Around him the gunmen relaxed. Paige flipped the EMR's power off and used the weapon to poke and prod at the fallen Turk. She pinned it against his shoulder and used it to push him over onto his back.

Despite what Reno had felt, the EMR hadn't broken any bones, but merely left a ghastly scorch mark. Paige felt sure he'd be feeling it for a while, though.

"Check him. Even his ears," Paige told the man with shades. "And get the truck here. I'm sweating bullets and getting eaten up by these damn mosquitoes. Oh, and for Gaia's sake find Waltz. Check the trees for a body. If we don't find him, we'll just have to assume the blonde one took him prisoner. There's no signal out here so we'll have to wait to make our report to Ms. Scarlet."

* * *

An hour after she saw the tarp-covered truck exit the woods and climb back onto the road, Elena finally descended the hills where she'd been hiding. The higher elevation made it possible for her to phone Tseng, and she was comforted to know that Rude and he were on their way to pick her up. Hopefully they'd find Reno hiding somewhere, too. Tseng hadn't heard from him.

Tseng had agreed with Elena that the attackers were probably after Jenova's remains. He'd ordered her to stay in the hills with the box until all traces of the enemy were gone. Elena had complied, but she was worried sick about her partner.

For all she knew Reno was hurt or dying somewhere. She was positive they would've found each other already if he'd made his way up into the hills. Surely he would've called her. Maybe he was hiding in a tree? Then again, maybe he'd gone back to the motorcycle after taking out all those guys she'd seen chasing him.

The logical side of her brain whispered for her to stop kidding herself. She'd heard the gunshots. She'd seen how outnumbered he was.

Elena tucked the black box and the headset under the safety of her arm as she picked her way down the rugged terrain and crept back into the tree cover. In her earlier haste, she'd ripped her backpack and been forced to abandon it.

She found the woods to be serenely quiet. The only sound was her shoes crunching leaves as she cautiously moved through the trees. The sunlight filtering through the treetops was a soft orange, and she was reminded of the long car ride she'd taken barely a week ago with Rude and Reno on their way home from Edge.

As much as she wanted to call out for Reno she didn't dare. There was no guarantee that the Turks were the only ones left in the woods.

Elena snuck through the woods, her eyes often glancing up the tree trunks. She looked for a glimpse of Reno's red hair in every direction as she walked. She listened to hear footsteps searching for her, but there was nothing.

It took her another hour to find the road again. She saw her own blood staining the flat dirt and touched her stomach where she'd been shot. The wound was completely healed thanks to the Materia Reno had given her before he'd disappeared into the woods. Elena stared at the dark stain for a few seconds before moving on.

Just as the sun began to fall and cover the road in the shadow of the woods, Elena reached the motorcycle. It was right where they'd been forced to abandon it. The tires were cut open and the WRO logo beneath the windscreen was covered in angry scratches. Reno's backpack was gone.

On the seat rested his identification card. Elena took a shuddering breath as her worst fears were confirmed. Her throat tightened, and she had to blink back heavy tears. She looked to the woods. Soon it would be too dark to look for his body, if they'd killed him.

Elena quickly wiped the tears from her eyes and squashed all of her emotions deep into her chest. Now was not the time to feel them. She took Reno's ID card and slipped it away into a pocket. She couldn't linger there. She had to get to the clearing Tseng had told her about.

It took only a ten minute hike to find the large clearing east of the road. It was exactly as Tseng described and definitely large enough that she would be easy to spot from the air. Until she heard the chopper coming, though, she was to stay under the trees.

Elena found a dead tree stump near the fringe of the clearing and sat on it to catch her breath. She set the box down between her feet and the headset on top of it. She took the ID card from her pocket and let her worried brown eyes pour over the picture and the information printed beside it.

The lump in her throat nearly choked her despite her best efforts to maintain her composure. Elena sucked in a deep breath and tucked the card away again. She looked up and froze as a gun was placed against the back of her head.

"Don't do anything stupid," a man's voice warned. "I mean it, Turk. Nothing funny. Just stand up and we'll go from there."

Shocked, Elena blinked several time before she was able to accept what was happening. She wasn't alone in the woods after all. Worse, she'd allowed someone to sneak right up on her.

_Tseng would be disappointed,_ she thought miserably as she slowly lifted her arms. Her heart hammered in her chest as she stood up. The box containing Jenova remained between her feet and she silently hoped the man wouldn't notice it in the tall grass.

"Good girl," the man said. "Now step away from that box."

Elena gritted her teeth and cursed her luck. She took a step forward and heard the man step over the dead tree trunk. She could see from his shadow that his attention was divided between aiming at her and leaning down to scoop up his prize. In that second Elena decided that there was only one course of action.

She could not let the enemy have Jenova's remains.

Elena spun around, her leg lifting and kicking out at the man's sternum. She felt the bone snap under her boot heel. He went down with a cry and gave her the opening she needed. She raced for it, diving for the box.

Her hands wrapped around it and Elena turned to flee across the clearing. She was brought up short when the man's fingers found her hair and jerked her backwards. Elena was dragged to the ground on top of him and they rolled as she thrashed and kicked. He pinned her back to his stomach as they laid on the ground and he tried to pry the box from her fingers, but Elena tucked it to her middle and refused to let go.

Her mind raced as she fought. She couldn't hold the box and pull out her gun, and she didn't know where his gun was either. She feared he'd reach for it next and began viciously elbowing him over and over until his grip loosened enough for her to scramble off of him.

Elena crawled quickly away but he lunged and brought her down again. His body flattened her against the ground and drove the air from her lungs. His big hands flipped her over and the man straddled her, his fingers locking around her throat. Elena dropped the box and clawed at his face with her nails, trying to gouge out his eyes. She rammed her knees against him and tried to twist out from his hold.

"Be still or I'll snap your head off, bitch!" the man growled, sweat pouring off his flushed face. He let go of her neck and grabbed her by the shoulders, lifting her and slamming her hard against the earth.

Elena's eyes rolled as her head spun dizzily. She seemed weak and disoriented. She let her hands fall to either side of her head and let her eyelids slip closed. Her fingers twitched and she gasped for breath.

The man sitting on her hips leaned back and caught his breath, too. She heard him sigh in relief.

He was not prepared for her brown eyes to snap open, fierce and determined—or for her fist to rocket hard and fast into his jaw, breaking several teeth and sending him tumbling off of her body.

Blood gushed from the man's mouth as he wallowed on the ground beside her, clutching his injury. Elena sat up and looked at him, dusting off the front of her uniform as she grabbed the box and stood again. She found his gun and came to stand over him.

The man pushed himself up and gave her a surly look. He held his face gingerly. "Are you going to shoot me?" he asked, wincing over his tender jaw.

Elena scoffed. "Only if you do something _stupid,"_ she mocked.

Twenty more minutes passed before she heard a helicopter closing in. A weighted rope was unfurled, and the tired Turk shoved the man towards it. Her gun stayed on him as he reluctantly shimmied his way up. At the top he was pulled inside by Tseng and was probably given the option to sit down and behave or have his legs broken.

Elena followed after her captive. At the top of the rope she took Tseng's offered hand and allowed the Director to help her into the chopper. She sat beside Tseng, noting that her attacker was unconscious.

"He snuck up on me and tried to take the box. He came pretty close to breaking my neck," she admitted.

With a defeated sigh, she pulled out Reno's ID card and handed it to Tseng. "This was at the motorcycle."

The Director took the card in his hand and glanced at the man sprawled on the helicopter's floor. The man was dressed in a dark suit similar to what the Turks wore.

"Did you find a body?" Tseng asked.

Elena gave him a hard look. "If I had, do you think I would have just _left_ him out there?"

Surprised, Tseng shook his head. "No, of course not, Elena."

She felt the sudden anger that had risen up in her chest abate and Elena sighed again. "Why would they leave his card?" she wondered.

"Hopefully for the same reason Kadaj gave ours to the President," Tseng told her, placing the ID card back into her hands.

"To tell us that they have him?"

Tseng nodded. "They knew eventually someone from Shin-Ra would come looking and find it. It could be they're under the incorrect assumption that the President would exchange Jenova's remains in order to get Reno back. If they'd killed him I can't help but think they would have left his body at the motorcycle. The card implies that its carrier is still alive and useful leverage."

"They definitely knew we were coming," Elena said, thinking of the roadblock. "They'd planned for it. I'm starting to think they were behind us having to borrow that bike from the WRO. They made sure we'd be on the road instead of up in the sky."

"It would be unfortunate if the WRO's involvement in this is anything other than innocent," Tseng said.

Elena put the card away again. "What should we do?"

"SOLDIER isn't far behind us. They've been ordered to comb the woods and search for further evidence of what happened here," Tseng explained. "Our orders are to finish the mission and bring Jenova's remains to the President."

Elena frowned at the box in her lap. It contained a dead thing capable of destroying every life on the planet. She knew they had to follow orders, but her heart wanted her to be with SOLDIER searching for Reno.

"Maybe your new friend there will be able to help us find out what's going on," Tseng said, gesturing to their prisoner.

Elena nodded. Tseng left her as guard and rejoined Rude in the front of the chopper, filling in the other Turk with what little knowledge they had on the situation.

"So he's with the bastards that did this," Rude said.

Tseng nodded, pulling out his PHS to update the President. "He attacked Elena. He should be able to tell us something useful, maybe even lead us to Reno."

Rude gripped the controls a little tighter and silently flew them out of there. The quicker they got back to Healen the sooner he could get some answers of his own.

* * *

The ceiling was a dark green tarp. It was stretched across tent-like bones and provided a cover for the long bed of the truck. He felt the vehicle move over unsteady ground. Reno lifted his head, and saw the gunmen sitting around, relaxed with their weapons perched lazily against their knees.

His hands and feet were tied. There was a patch of binding tape across the lower part of his face. Apparently, Paige really was tired of hearing him talk. Reno huffed. His jaw ached. His leg throbbed. He could tell they had wrapped it up in bandages. It was healed, but the job didn't feel complete.

He was in the very back of the truck, furthest from the opening at the end of the truck bed. The wall he was pressed against, Reno realized, was the back of the front seats. There was a driver, and beside the silver-haired man he saw the back of a head covered in fuzzy green hair. If his hands weren't tied, he would have reached up and twisted her head all the way around until it snapped on its hinges _twice._

Reno huffed again at his temporary helplessness and settled back to resume staring at the tarp-covered ceiling. Tseng was going to kill him for being captured, but at the time it had seemed like the only way to see the mission through. He even got the bonus of hopefully saving Elena.

_It's all Cloud's fault,_ the Turk decided. If he hadn't been distracted thinking about Cloud's terribly attractive eyes, he'd have recognized the trap for what it had been.

"Oh, you're awake," Paige noticed, twisting and leaning over her seat a little so that she could see him better. "It's such a relief. I would have been in trouble if that thing had fried your brains. You're not brain damaged, are you?"

Reno gave her a look that expressed clearly what an idiot he thought she was. The EMR was primarily a stun weapon. Sure it could kill if the current was hiked up all the way, but otherwise the worst it could do was shut all a person's surface muscles down and just plain hurt like hell.

Paige smiled, thinking it cute to see him all frustrated and obviously pouting about it.

"Your leg was healed because we were ordered to bring you back with as little injury as possible," Paige explained. She cocked her head and looked him over. Her smile cracked into a small grin.

"I like you better this way. Nice and quiet and _still."_

He repressed the urge to dwell on what she could possibly mean by that. Reno adopted a bored look and cut his eyes away from her, staring at the back of the seat instead. Maybe if he were _real_ still, she'd get bored and turn back around.

Paige kept right on gazing at him though. The burn on his face, she noted, was an angry red similar to a bad sunburn. It wouldn't scar him or anything. Neither would the wound on his leg, not after the cure spells she'd used on him. She'd left just enough behind to remind him that she could and would hurt him if he gave her cause.

"I'm glad you're the one we caught," Paige said. "I always found you more interesting than the other Turks. I'm sure you'll have lots of interesting things to tell my boss," she taunted.

Slowly, those green eyes, sharp and focused, slid back to watch her. The intent to do her harm that was reflected in those irises made a thrill of apprehension twist in Paige's stomach. She licked her yellow teeth and smiled.

"I think Ms. Scarlet will be glad to see you again, too. You used to drive us everywhere, remember?" Paige asked. "You should rest as much as you can. We have quite a trip ahead of us."

She watched him another minute and her face softened a little. "Reno, if you're smart you'll cooperate. It'll be a lot easier for you. I've seen her let other former Shin-Ra employees off the hook. They all make great additions to our company. You should think about joining up if she offers you a job. It's really the only option you got now. And hey, lucky you, red's her favorite color."

He cocked a slim eyebrow at her, made an amused, muffled noise, and looked away again.

* * *

"Sir," Elena said softly as she entered the room. A small black box was gripped tightly in her hands. Within it floated what they'd found of Jenova. Whatever body part it had been before, it was only an unrecognizable cluster of cells now. Reno's field kit had confirmed it to be a piece of the alien. She presented it to the President as if it were a gift. She could not keep her hands from shaking a little as she held it out. Reno's ID card rested atop of the box.

"Good work, Elena." Rufus carefully took the card. He considered the box and met Tseng's eyes. "Have it obliterated. Leave no trace of it whatsoever."

"Sir?" Tseng couldn't help but be surprised.

"I've come to accept that this is the only way to deal with the threat of monsters like Sephiroth and Jenova," the President replied. His eyes lowered to study the ID card he held in his hand. Only a few days ago he'd returned Tseng's and Elena's to them.

"Have it destroyed," Rufus said. "The absolute elimination of Jenova's remains is one of Shin-Ra's primary objectives. Understood?"

"Yes, sir," the Turks said.

Relieved, Elena passed the dark box to Tseng. She wondered how much more of Jenova was out there and how long it would take to retrieve the entire monster and permanently end its threat to their lives and the lives of everyone on the planet.

"Now, to more important business," Rufus said, tucking the ID card into one of his coat pockets. Still dependent on the chair, Rufus went to a room that was blanketed with screens. Tseng and Elena followed him. The box remained in Tseng's hands.

The Turks looked up at the screens and saw a jumbled mess of digits and scrambled pictures. Now and again they saw flashes of coherent data, but the images always flickered away into a blinding slew of numbers and static.

Dante sat feverishly attacking a keyboard with his ghostly pale fingers. He was just one of many who had answered the President's call to return to work after Shin-Ra made the lodge more or less their current headquarters. The tech's red eyes were scanning the screens before him.

"Any luck, Dante?" Rufus asked the young technician. The boy was around sixteen.

"Still looking, sir," the tech admitted. He ran a hand through his white hair and sighed. "I got several leads on her. She's been sneaking about closer to our PHS towers than she should have. Look here."

Dante pressed a few keys and one of the screens stabilized. An image of a woman with green hair appeared.

"That is without a doubt Paige Suell," Tseng said.

"There are several places that she frequents. Midgar, Edge, Rocket Town, Junon… I haven't been able to determine where her main base of operations is, though," Dante said, leaning back in his chair. He crossed his arms and sighed at the screens.

"If they killed him, why did they take the body?" Elena wondered quietly. Her voice cracked, and none in the room missed it.

"Elena…Keep it together," Tseng gently reprimanded.

The Turk straightened her shoulders and cleared her throat. "Yes, sir."

"You shouldn't worry," Tseng told her. "He's resilient. This was no assassination attempt. It was a planned kidnapping. You don't kidnap someone unless you want something from them. So long as Reno doesn't give them what they want, he'll stay alive."

"Which means," the President added, "that Reno will be alive when we find out where he is and move to retrieve him."

Elena and Tseng nodded. Elena felt a thrill of pride in her chest at Rufus's words. His faith in them was as strong as their faith in him. It was without question. It was something powerful, and Elena knew she would do anything to protect it.

"Keep gathering what information you can," Rufus told the tech. "Perhaps in a few hours our guest will be able to assist you."

Dante flexed his fingers and resumed his attack on the keyboard.

* * *

It was hard to breathe. Several of his bones were broken. His feet felt numb. One arm felt like it was splintered at the elbow. His fingers were curled in all the wrong directions. Blood and sweat made it hard for him to see. A fistful of his shirt was trapped in Rude's grip and his feet dangled several inches from the floor. His back was to a brick wall that was painted black. The whole room was black, even the concrete floor.

"What was your objective in kidnapping my partner?" the Turk asked.

Waltz's ears rang at the voice. It seemed so loud. It made his head want to split open. He'd told the Turk over and over that he'd just been in the wrong place at the wrong time. He'd given a good back story to help his alibi, but all of his words were dismissed as lies.

"Leave me alone," Waltz moaned.

Through his tears, Waltz saw the room's door open. All he could do was hang against the wall and watch as Rufus Shin-Ra walked in flanked by two more Turks. One of them was the little blonde one. If only he'd killed her when he'd had the chance.

"Rude, anything?" Tseng asked.

The Turk holding Waltz shook his head. "Not much. His name is Waltz and he works for ReVive, that group that hands out medicine to poor kids and people with Geostigma. He claims he just happened to be in the vicinity."

"He tried to break my neck," Elena said, glaring icy brown eyes at the man. "And he was dressed like the rest of them. They all had the same outfit on. I think when the others went after Reno he got sent back to make sure I was down."

"That's not what happened," Waltz said. "You were scared and just thought I was with whoever took your friend."

"You work for ReVive?" Rufus asked, and Waltz eagerly nodded.

"I doubt some shady guy like you works for ReVive," Elena said, scowling at the man who'd tried to kill her.

"ReVive is a mission-based organization," she went on to explain, meeting eyes with the President and Tseng. "They visit the villages all the time and bring medicine to help with the suffering there."

"They operate the two hospitals in Edge as well," Tseng said. "ReVive West and ReVive Central. Both are operational even though they're still under construction."

"A-And orphanages," Waltz added. "We help kids nobody wants."

"Sounds like a lovely organization," Rufus mused. "Is that what you were doing earlier today? Helping my people by attacking them?"

"That wasn't me! I wasn't with them!" Waltz insisted, and Rude lost his patience with the man, yanking him off the wall and slamming him into the floor. Waltz screamed until the ground cut him off.

"I told you," Rude said, cracking his knuckles. "Since we met, I've learned to tell when you're being honest."

Waltz held his good hand up to shield himself rather pathetically from the Turk looming over him. "Okay!" he wheezed. "I'm sorry!"

Rufus Shin-Ra scoffed and Waltz looked past the Turk to where the President still stood with his other two goons. There was such distaste in those blue eyes. It made Waltz want to sink through the floor. He was nothing to these people. They'd grind him into pieces and not lose a bit of sleep over it.

"What you are," the President said, "is many things. The least of which is a waste of human life. Aside from being a terrible liar, you're also an inept field agent. I must say though that I am incredibly pleased to have you as my guest."

Waltz was almost too afraid to ask. "...Why?"

Rufus combed some blond hair out his face and considered the bleeding man on the floor. "Well if you must know, just recently two of my Turks were captured and tortured by little monsters like you, albeit much more powerful and intelligent ones."

"That's not my fault," Waltz said. "Y-You can't take it out on me!"

"Despite how hard we looked we were unable to find them," Rufus continued. "We were fortunate to have an outsider intervene on their behalf. However, the little monsters were put down before I got the satisfaction of seeing them suffer for their crimes. You can imagine how unhappy I still am about it."

"S-Still, it's not my fault," Waltz whimpered. "I didn't do anything. You're wasting time hurting me when you could be out finding your guy!"

"In three hours I'll return and see if you're ready to work honestly with us," Rufus promised. He nodded at Rude and turned on his heel, striding away with Elena following him.

"Wait! No!" Waltz begged, desperate to not be left alone with Rude again. "You've got the wrong person!"

Tseng lingered. "Rude, take a break. I'll work with him. Be careful though. There are patients everywhere. Now that they're cured they're starting to walk around more. It'd be best if they didn't see one of us covered in this moron's blood."

Rude regarded the man slumped at his feet and looked back at Tseng. He nodded and stepped away. As he passed Tseng he said, "He's definitely a part of this, whatever it is. He knows where Reno is. I can see it in his eyes."

Waltz shook his head vigorously. "No—I'm not! I don't! I swear!"

The door closed and the only sound for several minutes was Waltz struggling to breathe. He sat crumpled on the floor across the room and watched Tseng. The man had long hair and eyes that could only be described as black they were so dark. Those eyes stayed locked on Waltz for what seemed like hours. The Turk didn't move. He didn't utter a threat. When enough time passed and Waltz couldn't stand it anymore, he gathered up his courage and addressed him.

"A-Are you Tseng?" Waltz asked nervously. "I think I've met you before."

"Explain."

Waltz swallowed. "In the elevator one time… you were on your phone. You didn't even look at me, but I knew you were a Turk cause of how you were dressed. When you got off the elevator someone told me _Tseng hates it when people stare."_

Tseng looked unimpressed. He started rolling up his sleeves.

"If he cooperates," Waltz said in a shaky voice, "she won't kill him. S-She'll even give him—all of you a job if you just cooperate. Lots of Shin-Ra people work for her now cause, you know, Shin-Ra's over. There's no use in pretendin' anything different."

Tseng's eyes were frightening. "Are you retracting your story about working for ReVive and innocently being in the wrong place at the wrong time?"

Waltz vigorously shook his head. "No! I do work for ReVive! I just wanted you to know that, uh, that I've met you and that, um, you're friend is probably okay, that's all."

Those black eyes were glittering with something that made Waltz wish the other guy would come back.

"And now you're lying again…" Tseng sighed.

"No! That guy just didn't trust me. He didn't want to believe me but I wasn't lying, I swear," Waltz insisted. "That other guy just liked beating me up."

Tseng scoffed. "I think I understand why."

* * *

As promised, Rufus returned approximately three hours later, again without his cane. He could stand without it for almost thirty minutes, but then he'd need the chair to collapse into. He wasn't about to do any collapsing in front of his Turks or the likes of their prisoner, so Rufus wasted no time in indicating that he was ready for answers.

"Is he still lying?" the President asked, standing just in the doorway. Elena and Rude stepped into the room on either side of him.

Tseng grabbed a fistful of the man's shaggy hair and dragged Waltz closer to the door so that Rufus wouldn't get any blood or other filth on his shoes.

Waltz stumbled and crawled to keep up with the Turk and fell to his knees when Tseng brought him to a halt before Rufus Shin-Ra. The Turk kept a firm grip on his hair. Waltz blinked frantically to see through the blood blinding his eyes. His hands, full of broken fingers, lay useless on either side of his knees. His bare feet felt numb against the concrete floor. The world was spinning around him, and he thought someone asked him a question, but his ears were ringing and he couldn't understand.

His face was slammed to the ground and Waltz screamed at the impact. His useless hands scrambled to push himself up again, but the Turk was kneeling beside him with fingers still tangled in his hair. Tseng forced his face flat against the concrete floor. Waltz stopped fighting and instead dissolved into a shaking, blubbering mess. Blood was burning his eyes and made the floor feel slick against his skin. Another moment passed and the Turk yanked him upright.

Before Tseng rose back to his feet he growled into Waltz's ear, "He's waiting for you to talk, you stupid bastard. He's not going to wait long."

Waltz rubbed his face against his sleeve so that he could see who Tseng was talking about. He looked up and saw the President and the other Turks waiting in front of the room's only exit. He wept before all of them; sure they were going to beat him to death.

The President's gaze was lethal. "What is your name?" he asked.

"Jerry," Waltz answered through his tears. "Jerry Waltz."

"Good," Rufus said with a tinge of sarcasm. "It's not so hard to answer my questions. Do you think you're a good person, Jerry?"

Waltz nodded desperately. "Yes! I'm a very good person. Please—please stop hurting me. Please make him stop," he sobbed, holding up his quivering hands in supplication.

"A simple 'yes' would have sufficed. Who did you work for before Meteorfall?" Rufus asked.

Waltz coughed on the blood in his throat. Strings of drool hung at his mouth as he tried to spit out an answer. Tseng helped him out by tightening his grip on the man's hair and stomping on the upturned bottom of Waltz's left foot.

Waltz gave a wild scream and ripped himself away from the Turk. His body hit the floor and rolled closer to where the President stood. Before he'd even rolled to a stop Tseng was upon him, kicking him in the ribs and seizing Waltz by the hair. The Turk yanked him right back onto his knees.

"Tell him who you worked for before Meteorfall," Tseng advised.

"Shin-Ra," Waltz said breathlessly. His bloody face was contorted with pain. "Weapon's Architect."

Rufus carded his fingers through his blond hair and regarded Waltz with such utter disdain that it made the man shiver. "You mean to say that you worked for _me."_

"Y-Yes sir, I did before the Company fell apart."

"I hope your new employer is aware of your fickle sense of loyalty," Rufus said. "Who do you work for now, Jerry?"

"I told him before," Watlz said with a nervous glance towards Rude. He blinked away tears and blood to keep his eyes open. "ReVive."

"ReVive is a company. We already know what organization you work for," Rufus said impatiently. "You're beginning to waste my time again, Jerry. If you'd like, I could come back tomorrow and we can try again."

"No! Please! I don't know what you want me to say!" Waltz cried.

Elena watched the President from the corner of her vision. His brow was just beginning to glisten from the effort of standing under his own power. He would need to sit down soon, but she didn't dare indicate her knowledge of it. She was sure Rude had noticed, too.

"Who do you work for now, Jerry?" Rufus asked again.

Terrified hazel eyes looked up to Tseng, but the Turk shook his head. "It's coming from your own mouth. Tell him what you told me."

"Please kill me," Waltz begged. "She's going to turn me inside out with one of her crazy torture machines."

"That isn't up to me," Tseng said quietly, "but cooperating with us certainly won't hurt your cause."

Waltz nodded. For all he knew, Rufus had torture machines of his own. Perhaps he just had this guy. This guy was enough.

Still, if she ever found out…

"I can see you still have your doubts. My, you really are a slow one," Rufus said, shaking his blond head. "We'd be better off letting you go and just tailing you back to her. Then again, I'm sure even a witless fool like you knows that she's already assumed you are either dead or you've spilled everything you know to us."

"But I haven't," Waltz sobbed.

"Do you think, Jerry, that she's going to welcome you back with open arms?" the President asked. "Even if you run from her she will hunt you down and torture you just the same. Your only realistic option is to cooperate and pray that when we're finished, I feel merciful enough to end your worthless life. You're not going to die until I'm ready for it. We can keep this game up for as long as it takes, but that's the truth."

Waltz swallowed, knowing his best bet was to never leave the room alive. It shook him to his core to know it.

"I'll be back in the morning," Rufus told him. "You will tell me what dear Scarlet is scheming and show on a map every place my Turk might have been taken. If he is located and retrieved alive, then you will have your swift death. If he is not found and brought back alive then you will earn your death inch by inch. Is that understood, Jerry? I hope you have plenty to say between now and sunrise. The more you talk the more Tseng will stop and listen."

"H-How do you know I work for Scarlet?" Waltz asked, looking panicked.

Rufus didn't bother to answer as he nodded at Tseng and left the room. Elena followed him, shutting the door behind her. Rude remained behind.

"_Is he watching this?"_ Waltz asked them, his voice getting shrill. "Is he watching and listening?"

Tseng let go of Waltz's hair and moved around to snatch him up by the shirt, forcing the man to stand.

"You recognized that blonde woman who left with the President?" Tseng asked, and Waltz nodded, staring up at him with wide hazel eyes. "That's Elena. She's the one you tried to strangle."

"I wasn't gonna kill her," Waltz insisted. "Just take her in like the other one."

"Why take them?" Tseng asked.

"I was just following orders. I don't know what she wants with them. She wanted us to get a Turk, so we did."

"Stop calling her 'she' and say her name," Tseng ordered. "Ever since the President walked in you've forgotten her name. You've already given it up. There's no point in hiding it now."

Waltz nodded, wincing at the pain of standing on his crushed foot. Tseng let go of him, pushing him away in disgust. Waltz dropped to the ground and rested in his own blood.

"I'll watch him again," Rude offered, watching their prisoner through his dark shades. "He keeps lookin' at me like he's missed me."

Tseng sighed and took a cloth from his jacket, wiping the blood from his face and tucking it away again. "I'll be back later with a map."

Rude held the door open for the Director and Tseng left. The door closed again, and Rude regarded the sniveling waste of human being that sat on the floor nursing its wounds.

"So, you ready to talk this time? You figured out I'm the nice guy yet?" Rude asked. "How about you start by telling me about Scarlet."

Waltz looked up at him. They wouldn't give him a break. His heart was racing in his chest. He just needed them to get out of his face for even a second but they kept at him. He tensed when the Turk closed in on him.

"You can tell me whatever you want, but you need to start talking," Rude warned. "If you can't tell, I'm in a pretty big hurry to get my partner back, and you're slowing me down. That's a stupid move on your part."


End file.
